LIBRARY 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


PSYCHIC 

AND 

ECONOMIC  RESULTS 


OF 


MAN'S  PHYSICAL 
UPRIGHTNESS 


Published   by  the  Author 

849  lancoln  Avenue 
PASADENA,  CAX,.,  U.  S.  A. 


PSYCHIC    AND   ECONOMIC 

RESULTS  OF  MAN'S 
PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS 


"There  can  be  no  alleviation  for  the  sufferings  of  mankind  except 
in  absolute  veracity  of  thought  and  action  and  in  a  resolute  facing  of 
the  world  as  it  is,  with  all  garment  of  make-believe  thrown  off."— 
THOS.  H.  HUXLBY. 


Published  by  the  Author 

849  Lincoln   Avenue 

PASADENA,     CAL. 

U.  S.  A. 


Printing  and  Binding  by  Appeal  Publishing  Company 
Girard,    Kansas 
1906 


PEEFACE. 

The  title  correctly  indicates  the  contents  of  these  essays, 
in  which  the  origin  of  some  of  the  more  important  mental, 
moral,  social,  economic  and  political  conditions  of  today 
has  been  traced  to  the  physical  peculiarities  of  our  brute 
ancestors. 

Nothing  except  what  competent  scientists  regard  as  set- 
tled has  been  taken  for  granted,  but  generally  speaking  it 
has  been  demonstrated,  that  from  these  peculiarities,  such 
conditions  had  to  follow  as  inevitable  results. 

In  chapters  one  to  eight,  inclusive,  our  brute  ancestors 
are  considered  as  they  were  in  the  period  before  they  had 
learned  to  use  sticks  and  stones.  In  chapter  nine  this  limi- 
tation has  been  disregarded. 

Dealing  with  problems  so  closely  related  to  the  fates 
of  vast  numbers  of  people  alive  today  our  judgments  tend 
to  be  colored  by  our  sympathies.  Foreseeing  this  danger, 
the  author  has  carefully  guarded  against  it  by  aiming  at  a 
cold,  judicial  attitude  of  mind,  to  which  human  beings  are 
no  more  than  numerals  in  a  calculation,  or  lines  and  angles 
in  a  geometrical  figure. 

The  aim  has  been  to  make  the  argument  conclusive  in 
the  eight  earlier  chapters,  suggestive  in  the  ninth. 

T.  W.  HEIKEMAK 

Pasadena,  Cal.,  1906. 


153720 


Copyright  by 

T.  W.  Heineman,  Pasadena,  Calif. 
1906. 


PART  I. 

NATURAL    SELECTION    OF    HUMAN    INTELLIGENCE. 

CHAPTER       I.     Brute-man's  Disabilities  and  Perils. 

CHAPTER    II.     The  Means  of   Escape. 

CHAPTER  III.     Forcing  the  Growth  of  Intelligence. 


CHAPTEE  I. 

BRUTE-MAN'S  PHYSICAL  DISABILITIES  AND  PERILS. 

With  wider  recognition  of  the  influence  of  heredity  on 
character  and  destiny,  the  interest  in  the  genealogy  of  the 
human  race  naturally  increases.  Darwin's  "Descent  of  Man" 
indicated  clearly  enough  the  direction  in  which  to  look  for 
our  ancestors,  but  knowledge  of  facts  bearing  upon  the  sub- 
ject was,  in  his  day,  still  too  fragmentary  for  the  general 
acceptation  of  his  theory.  Since  then,  several  of  the  miss- 
ing links  in  the  chain  have  been  supplied  and  the  discovery 
of  Eugene  Dubois  has  been  especially  significant. 

For  the  thigh-bone,  teeth  and  part  of  a  skull,  which 
he  found  in  an  ancient  dry  river  bed  of  the  Island  of  Java, 
were  more  like  the  corresponding  parts  in  the  human  skele- 
ton than  any  other  bones  or  parts  of  bones  obtainable  from 
the  quadrumana.  Obviously  these  remains  belonged  to  an 
extinct  species  intermediate  between  man  and  the  most  man- 
like anthropoid  apes  of  today.  Pithecanthropus  is  the  name 
given  to  this  extinct  species,  and  some  naturalists  have  gone 
so  far  as  to  assume  that  this  discovery  has  supplied  the 
last  of  the  missing  links,  in  the  chain  of  descent  from  gib- 
bon to  man. 

But  no  assumption  of  this  or  any  other  kind,  with 
reference  to  the  descent  of  man,  is  needed,  as  a  foundation 
or  otherwise,  to  sustain  the  coherent  syllogisms  presented  in 
the  following  chapters,  which  are  based  on  the  proposition: 
"that  all  higher  types  of  life  have  been  derived,  or  are  de- 


8  PSYCHIC   AND  ECONOMIC   RESULTS 

scended,  from  lower,  and  that  man's  origin  is  no  exception 
from  this  unalterable  rule." 

For  evidences  and  arguments  sustaining  this  law  con- 
verge from  every  branch  of  the  natural  sciences,  and  from 
all  the  widely  divergent  fields  of  inquiry  in  which  natur- 
alists and  investigators  have  been  engaged,  and  although 
these  evidences  and  arguments  have  been  frequently  con- 
tested and  with  great  ability,  they  have  always  been  vindi- 
cated in  the  end. 

Hundreds  of  institutions  of  learning,  experts  by  the 
tens  of  thousands,  competent  observers  and  thinkers,  authors 
by  the  hundreds  of  thousands,  have  contributed  corrobora- 
tive facts  and  conclusive  lines  of  reasoning.  Tests  and  tests 
of  tests,  series  after  series,  practically  innumerable,  have 
been  applied,  until  finally  the  consensus  of  the  competent 
has  become  unanimous. 

Does  this  assert  the  evolution  of  man  from  lower  forms 
of  life?  It  does  assert  his  descent,  or  derivation,  but  not 
his  evolution.  To  assert  the  evolution  of  any  organic  type 
from  another,  is  a  misuse  of  language,  apt  to  lead  to  mis- 
apprehension. 

The  term  evolution  is  properly  applied  only  to  that  pro- 
cess by  which  inorganic  and  organic  masses  or  individuals  pro- 
gress, by  dissipation  of  motion  and  concentration  of  matter, 
from  more  or  less  indefinite  incoherent  homogeneity,  towards 
more  definite  coherent  heterogeneity,  which,  among  organic 
forms  of  life,  implies  a  greater  degree  of  specialization  and 
adaptability.  Such  a  process  in  sexually  reproducing  organ- 
isms obviously  cannot  be  continuous  from  generation  to  gener- 
ation. For  a  new  individual  of  a  new  generation  springs 
from  the  conjugation  of  the  sperm  cell  of  one  organism  with 
the  germ  cell  or  ovum  of  another.  This  conjugation  is  the 
beginning  of  the  evolution  of  a  new  organism,  and  not  a 


OF  MAN  S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS. 

continuation  of  the  evolution  of  either  or  both  of  the  organ- 
isms from  which  these  two  different  cells  have  come.  Thus 
higher  forms  of  life  are  not  evolved,  but  derived,  descended 
from  lower,  by  variation,  through  sexual  reproduction. 

Limiting  consideration  in  this  place  to  the  more  im- 
portant among  his  external  physical  traits,  man  is  distin- 
guished from  the  quadrumana  mainly  by: 

1.  Arms  proportionally  shorter; 

2.  Finger  tips,  fingers,  and  thumbs,  in  the  upper  ex- 
tremities, mainly  specialized  to  sensations  of  touch — as  dis- 
tinguished from  the  corresponding  organs  of  the  quadrumana, 
which    are    almost    exclusively    adapted    to    prehension    and 
locomotion ; 

3.  At  the  lower   extremities,   feet   distinguished   from 
hands,  by   having  the  hallux   unopposable,   because   of   the 
shape  of  the  entocuneiform  bone,  and  long  enough  to  serve 
as   a  fulcrum,   standing   or   walking,   which,   in   connection 
with  the  position  of  the   occipital   foramen   magnum,   just 
back  of  the  centre  of  the  base  of  the  skull,  and  the  double 
curvature  of  the  spinal  column,  is  the  essential  condition  on 
which  physical  uprightness  depends;1 

4.  Proportionally  larger  and  more  muscular  lower  or 
posterior  limbs; 

5.  A  body  more   slender  in   proportion,   with   smaller 


1.  Most  scientists  continue  to  call  the  posterior  extremities  of 
apes,  including  those  of  the  troglodites,  hands,  and  all  apes  quad- 
rumana. This  view  has  been  adhered  to  in  these  essays. 

There  is,  however,  good  anatomical  reason  for  classifying  these 
extremities,  with  Huxley,  as  feet.  But  since  functionally  they  are 
hands,  almost  to  the  same  extent  as  the  anterior  pair;  and  since 
the  troglodites,  according  to  some  observers,  usually  walk  on  the 
knuckles  of  these  members,  and  according  to  others,  on  the  inside 
edges,  it  seems  moi  3  rational  to  retain  the  former  classification  in 
these  essays,  at  leaf  . 


10  PSYCHIC   AND  ECONOMIC    RESULTS 

thoracic  cavity,  therefore,  necessarily  less  capacious  viscera 
and  vitals; 

6.  A  larger  cranium,  therefore,  more  room  for  brains ; 

7.  Ear  lobes  and  chin; 

8.  Glossy   bare   epidermis   covering   almost  the   entire 
body,   in  lieu  of   the  hairy   hide   of   the   quadrumana   and 
quardrupeda. 

It  has  been  asserted  with  great  confidence  that  at  one 
time  all  men  had  hairy  bodies;  that  the  wearing  of  artifi- 
cial coverings,  first  skins  and  then  clothes,  made  hair  un- 
necessary and  interfered  with  its  healthy  growth;  and  that, 
therefore,  men  now  have  smooth  skin,  without  hair.  It  is 
asserted  that  the  exceedingly  rare  appearance  of  men  with 
hairy  bodies,  and  the  prevalent  hairiness  of  the  Ainos  of 
Japan,  is  proof  that  at  one  time  the  bodies  of  all  men  were 
hairy.  There  is  not  a  particle  of  evidence  that  hairiness 
ever  was  general  among  men.  The  exceedingly  rare  appear- 
ance of  a  hairy  man  and  the  exceptional  existence  of  one 
hairy  nation  is  no  evidence;  nor  is  the  existence  of  fine, 
almost  invisible  hair  all  over  the  body;  nor  is  the  hairiness 
of  the  six  months  old  human  embryo.  These  facts  can  only 
be  considered  as  evidence  that  by  variation  the  "genus  homo" 
has  descended  from  hairy  non-human  brutes. 

Nor  is  it  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  wearing  of 
artificial  covering  has  caused  a  hairy  ancestry  to  bring  forth 
a  hairless  progeny,  for  this  is  taking  the  transmission  of 
acquired  traits  for  granted. 

Hairy  coats  collect  and  harbor  fleas,  lice,  and  similar 
insect  pests  on  the  bodies  of  animals,  and  also  disease  germs, 
and  here  these  multiply  prodigiously.  The  secretions  of  the 
skin  furnish  ideal  culture  media  for  these  germs,  and  the 
crawling  and  hopping  insects  carry  them  around.  Thus  it 
requires  but  a  slight  accidental  scratch  or  cut  to  cause  the 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  11 

germs  to  invade  the  bodies  of  their  hosts  and  to  spread 
devastating  epidemics  in  herds  or  entire  races. 

Hairlessness,  which  under  natural  conditions  is  such 
an  inestimable  adjunct  to  cleanliness,  is,  therefore,  caeteris 
paribus,  of  great  survival  value  and  this  fact  makes  it  very 
probable,  if  not  certain,  that  this  trait  was  naturally  selected 
in  the  human  race.  At  least  it  produces  such  a  strong  pre- 
liminary case  in  favor  of  this  conclusion,  as  to  throw  upon 
those  who  deny  it,  the  onus  of  proving  the  contrary. 

It  is  otherwise  with  the  quadrumana,  when  in  their 
natural  habitats.  Woodticks,  jiggers  and  the  other  insect 
pests  found  on  the  trunks  and  branches  of  forest  trees  and 
shrubs,  cannot  live  and  propagate  in  hair  or  fur.  The  in- 
sect's and  disease  germs,  which  are  dangerous  to  brute  life, 
are  plentiful  in  moist  and  wet  regions  on  the  ground,  but 
not  on  the  trunks  or  branches  of  trees.  Hairlessness,  there- 
fore, has  no  survival  value  for  apes. 

It  is,  however,  quite  rational  to  believe  that  the  wear- 
ing of  artificial  covering  would  make  hairy  men  lose  their 
hair,  but  the  offspring  of  such  would  not,  therefore,  be  born 
less  hairy  than  their  parents.  Again,  if  men  were  formerly 
hairy  and  had  only  become  hairless  by  the  wearing  of  arti- 
ficial covering,  then  those  tribes  and  nations  which  have 
never  worn  artificial  covering  would  still  be  hairy.  But  some 
of  the  savages  of  Africa  and  Australia,  and  some  of  the 
natives  of  India,  have  gone  naked  since  time  immemorial, 
and  still  do  so  up  to  date;  yet  they  are  as  free  from  hair 
as  the  people  of  Europe.  Finally,  why  in  common  sense 
should  creatures  covered  with  fur  or  hair  be  supposed  to 
wear  artificial  covering? 

Distinguished  by  the  eight  differences  above  noted  from 
the  genera,  most  nearly  related,  the  "genus  homo,"  as  a  new 
type  of  life,  had  to  share  in  the  struggle  for  existence,  bat- 


12  PSYCHIC  AND  ECONOMIC   EESULTS 

tling  with  the  unthinking,  unfeeling  forces  of  nature,  and 
with  great  numbers  and  varieties  of  creatures  fiercer  and 
more  powerful  than  he,  which,  in  addition,  were  naturally 
armed  and  provided  with  means  for  protection,  escape  and 
rapid  multiplication.  Was  he  well  fitted  for  the  trial?  Few 
if  any  brutes,  were  less  so. 

The  adaptations  by  which  animals  when  not  other- 
wise disadvantaged  survive  in  the  struggle  for  exigence  may 
be  broadly  classified  under  these  four  heads :  1st — Means 
of  offense  and  defense;  2nd — Means  of  protection;  3rd — 
Means  of  escape;  4th — Means  of  multiplication.  Under  all 
these  heads,  hardly  a  creature  among  the  higher  mammalia, 
birds,  fishes,  reptiles,  and  insects,  would  rank  as  low,  for 
natural  endowment,  as  man's  brute  ancestors  did  before  they 
had  learned  the  use  of  sticks  and  stones. 

Considering  the  four  classes  of  adaptations,  in  the  order 
above  stated,  we  find  that: 

Firstly,  most  creatures  are  naturally  armed  for  offense 
and  defense.  They  have  horns,  tusks,  claws,  stings,  fangs, 
talons,  poisons,  sharp  teeth,  protruding  jaws,  etc.,  where- 
with either  to  defend  themselves  against  enemies,  or  to  at- 
tack and  pursue  their  prey.  Man  has  none  of  these. 

Secondly,  most  creatures  possess  heavy  fur,  thick  hides, 
or  both,  or  some  equivalent  of  these,  which  protect  their 
bodies  from  scratches,  cuts  or  abrasions,  which  thorns,  nee- 
dles, stones,  etc.,  or  antagonists  in  the  original  habitats, 
might  otherwise  inflict.  These  means  also  protect  them 
against  changes  of  temperature,  and  from  biting  winds  and 
biting  enemies;  from  snow,  hail,  rain,  etc.  Man  has  no 
protection  of  this  sort. 

Thirdly,  the  hairy  bodies  of  many  creatures  match  well 
with  the  prevailing  tints  in  their  usual  habitats,  and  are, 
therefore,  ready  means  of  concealment  from  their  enemies 


OP  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPKIGHTNESS.  13 

or  prey.  This  increases  their  chances  of  escape  and  for 
obtaining  sustenance.  Primitive  man's  hairless,  glossy,  un- 
clad, bare  skinned,  tall,  upright  body,  made  him  a  particu- 
larly prominent,  easily  perceived  mark.  The  absence  of 
hide  and  fur,  which  carnivora  are  forced  to  strip  off  before 
they  can  devour  other  creatures,  made  primitive  man  an 
easy,  therefore,  attractive  morsel  for  these  predatory  crea- 
tures. 

Proportionally  to  the  size  of  his  body,  the  viscera  of 
man  are  less  capacious  than  those  of  most  other  mammalians. 
He  is,  therefore,  forced  to  take  food  oftener  and  cannot 
uninterruptedly  sustain  efforts  for  as  long  a  period  as  his 
enemies  or  competitors.  This  is  an  enormous  disadvantage 
in  the  struggle  for  existence. 

Fourthly,  in  the  matter  of  multiplication,  nature  has 
excessively  discriminated  against  man,  for  the  period  of  preg- 
nancy in  our  race  is  exceptionally  long,  and  the  number  of 
offspring  born  at  one  birth  is  as  low  in  our  case  as  in  any. 

Besides  the  above  mentioned  deficiencies  in  natural  en- 
dowment, man  is  afflicted  with  numerous  special  infirmities, 
among  which  may  be  noticed  the  absence  of  valves  from  the 
vense-cavae  and  from  the  iliac,  hsemorrhoidal  and  portal  veins. 
Quadrupeds  have  no  need  of  these  valves  in  these  blood 
vessels,  but  the  lack  of  them  in  man  produces  frequent  cases 
of  congestion,  strangulation,  illness  and  death.  Many  hu- 
man beings  are  incapacitated  annually,  or  lose  health  and 
even  life,  by  femoral  and  inguinal  hernias,  brought  on  and 
aggravated  by  the  upright  attitude.  The  frontal  exposure 
of  man's  femoral  artery,  brought  on  by  uprightness,  annu- 
ally demands  many  victims,  even  in  these  days  of  medical 
and  surgical  skill.  In  the  primary  ages  of  brute-man's 
existence,  the  sacrifice  of  life  from  these  causes  must  have 
been  enormous. 


14  PSYCHIC  AND  ECONOMIC   RESULTS 

The  disadvantages  above  recited  react  with  like  severity 
upon  all  specimens  of  the  race.,  irrespective  of  sex  or  age. 
Others  must  now  be  explained  which  are  more  dangerous 
to  survival  than  these,  although  they  directly  affect  preg- 
nant women  only. 

The  females  of  quadrupeds  may,  during  pregnancy, 
carry  a  numerous  litter  of  young  in  their  bodies,  and  yet 
without  experiencing  an  appreciable  degree  of  increase  in 
effort,  or  in  inconvenience:  they  can  run  away  from  pur- 
suing enemies,  make  chase  to  capture  prey,  or  collect  suste- 
nance. For  the  foetal  burden  is  near  the  ground,  horizon- 
tally distributed  over  the  entire  length  of  the  abdominal 
muscles.  These  in  turn  are  supported  from  above  by  the 
full  strength  of  the  vertebral  column,  to  which,  on  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  arch  or  truss  in  architecture,  the  abdominal 
muscles  are  attached  by  intermediate  tissues.  Even  if  a 
quadruped  stumbles  or  falls,  its  under  side  is  so  close  to 
the  ground  that  the  risk  of  injury  is  comparatively  small. 

It  is  very  different  with  the  pregnant  female  of  the 
human  race.  The  erect  attitude  concentrates  the  pressure 
of  the  foetus,  supporting  tissues,  and  enlarged  uterus,  at  the 
lower  forward  end  of  the  abdomen,  making  the  bearing  of 
offspring  an  exceptionally  incapacitating  strain  upon  almost 
every  movement,  thus  increasing  the  risks  of  being  overtaken 
by  enemies,  starving  from  inability  to  capture  prey  or  gather 
sustenance,  and  of  injury  or  death  in  consequence  of  falls 
or  even  stumbles. 

In  quadrupeds  the  anterior,  posterior,  lateral,  peritoneal 
and  round  ligaments  firmly  support  the  uterus  and  prevent 
it  from  pitching  too  far  forward  towards  the  diaphragm, 
but  the  upright  attitude  interferes  with  their  doing  this 
service,  in  the  case  of  human  females,  which  accounts  for 
the  frequency  in  our  race,  of  painful  and  dangerous  illness 


15 

from  prolapsus  uteri.  The  same  position  and  shape  of  the 
pelvic  bones,  which  makes  parturition  easy  and  painless  in 
quadrupeds,  becomes  in  the  human  race  the  prolific  cause 
of  suffering  and  death  to  mothers  and  offspring.  With  so 
many  odds  against  it,  how  did  the  human  race  escape  ex- 
tinction? It  will  be  the  purpose  of  several  subsequent  chap- 
ters to  find  a  rational  and  sufficient  answer  to  this  question. 


16  PSYCHIC   AND  ECONOMIC   RESULTS 


CHAPTEK  II. 

THE    MEANS    OF    ESCAPE. 

The  announcement  made  in  the  preface,  that  all  but 
the  last  chapter  in  these  essays  should  be  devoted  to  the 
conditions  of  brute-man,,  before  he  became  familiar  with 
the  use  of  sticks  and  stones,  indicates  where  this  inquiry 
should  end,  but  leaves  the  period  uncertain  in  which  it 
should  begin.  This,  however,  is  suggested  by  the  use  of  the 
terms,  brute-man,  two-footed  upright  brute,  etc. 

For,  when  our  ancestors  had  so  far  differentiated  from 
the  genera  most  closely  related  to  them  that  they  could  no 
longer  be  classified  with  them,  but  were  a  species  by  them- 
selves, were  brute-men,  then  they  became  subject's  for  the 
line  of  investigation  followed  in  these  essays. 

When  a  creature  supplied  at  the  posterior  extremities 
with  two  feet,  distinguished  from  hands  by  the  modified 
form  of  the  entocuneiform  bone  and  by  having  the  hallux 
as  a  fulcrum,  and  at  the  anterior  with  two  hands  and  with 
the  occipital  foramen  magnum  a  little  back  of  the  centre 
of  the  base  of  the  skull ;  that  is  to  say,  when  a  brute,  which 
although  closely  related  to  the  quadrumana,  was  yet  not 
fitted  for  tree  life  or  climbing,  but  adapted  instead  to  up- 
right walking  or  standing,  made  its  first  appearance  on 
earth,  then  was  the  beginning  of  the  human  race  and  of 
the  period  to  which  these  pages  are  devoted. 

In  the  last  chapter  attention  was  directed  to  a  few  of 
the  many  disabilities  and  perils  with  which  the  human  race 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  17 

was  loaded  down,  when  ifr  made  its  first  entry  in  the  strug- 
gle for  existence. 

Any  one  of  these  is  ordinarily  sufficient  to  doom  a  type 
of  life  to  rapid  extermination.  When  two  or  more  of  them 
apply  to  the  same  variety,  speedy  extinction  is  certain,  un- 
less their  effects  are  counter-balanced  by  a  rapid  and  copious 
rate  of  multiplication. 

The  "genus  homo,"  however,  was  afflicted  with  all  these 
disabilities,  perils  and  infirmities,  and  with  still  others  to 
be  mentioned  hereafter,  while  at  the  same  time  the  rate  of 
multiplication  in  our  race,  is  almost  the  slowest  known  and 
the  farthest  removed  from  copiousness,  if  the  elephant,  eagle 
and  a  few  other  instances  are  excluded ;  and  it  is  noteworthy, 
that  these  exceptions,  although  supplied  with  natural  means 
of  offense,  defense,  protection  and  escape,  exist  only  in 
scanty  numbers,  not  very  far  removed  from  extinction. 

Humanity's  survival,  therefore,  falls  little  short  of  be- 
ing miraculous,  and  can  only  be  accounted  for  by  the  high 
average  of  intellectuality  attained.  Until  a  degree  of  this 
had  been  reached  and  applied  to  the  use  of  sticks  and  stones, 
if  our  race  was  to  survive  at  all  (and  it  has),  it  must  un- 
avoidably have  remained  in  the  interval,  in  such  close  prox- 
imity to  extinction  as  to  be  continuously  on  the  verge  of  it. 
escaping  only  by  a  very  narrow  margin. 

As  an  objection  to  the  above  it  may  be  assumed,  how- 
ever, that  a  superior  type  of  intelligence  already  distinguished 
the  very  first  specimens  of  man's  upright  brute-ancestors, 
and  that  these  began  immediately  to  use  sticks  and  stones, 
and  that,  therefore,  the  interval  above  mentioned  may  never 
have  existed. 

To  many  people  a  literal  interpretation  of  the  bible  story 
of  Eve,  the  serpent,  and  the  tree  of  knowledge,  still  seems 
sufficient  authority  for  the  first  part  of  this  assumption.  As 


18  PSYCHIC   AND  ECONOMIC   RESULTS 

a  poetic  allegory  it  is  a  work  of  unique  charm.  But  anything 
so  absolutely  contrary  to  the  whole  trend  of  experience  can- 
not be  made  acceptable  to  impartial,  rational  minds,  by  even 
the  most  charming  of  poetic  allegories.  It  is  irrational  to 
assert  the  extraordinary  without  evidence,  and  there  is  not 
a  particle  of  evidence  to  support  either  the  story  or  the  a§- ' 
sumption:  It  is  furthermore  a  settled  principle  triat^ttew' 
types  or  new  traits  do  not  come  into  existence  suddenly. 
Whenever  investigated,  it  has  always  been  successfully  dem- 
onstrated that  they  start  from  small  beginnings  which  pri- 
marily emerge,  through  variation,  by  sexual  reproduction. 
Then  if  they  have  survival  value,  natural  selection  keeps  on 
accumulating  them  from  generation  to  generation  until  they 
become  prominent,  typical.1 

Intelligence  was  the  last  achievement  of  life,  the  func- 
tion of  a  structure  vastly  more  complex  and  unstable  than 
any  that  had  existed  before.  To  assume  that  a  superior 
type  of  this  faculty  should  have  appeared  on  the  scene  full- 
fledged,  is  not  science,  nor  reason;  it  is  superstition.  It  is 
to  assert  a  monstrous  nullification  of  the  order  of  nature. 

Eeferring  to  the  second  part  of  the  assumption;  it  can 
not  be  denied,  that  a  two-footed  upright  brute  is  organ- 
ically better  fitted  for  the  clever  use  of  clubs  and  missiles 
than  the  quadrumana  are,  and  if  creatures  so  fitted  under- 
stand the  use  of  these  appliances,  then  they  are  well  pre- 
pared for  the  struggle  for  existence,  though  otherwise  sadly 
disadvantaged. 

i.  Thinking  of  higher  animals  only,  the  possibility  was  overlooked  that  the  text  might  be 
construed  into  a  sweeping  assertion  of  the  applicability  to  all  forms  of  life,  of  the  principle  enun- 
ciated above.  The  insertion  of  the  words,  "among  higher  animals,1' limits  the  language  as 
required  by  the  present  state  of  knowledge 

On  comparing  higher  animals  with  plants,  the  comparatively  low  degree  of  organization  of 
the  latter,  in  which  distinctive  individuation  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  begun,  their  frequent  propa- 
gation by  budding,  grafting,  slipping  and,  more  yet,  the  fact  that  in  most  plants  the  reproductive 
organs  are  mere  special  adaptations  of  the  structures  otherwise  devoted  to  nutrition,  lead  the 
mind,  in  their  case,  to  expect  sudden  mutations  of  type  or  trait  from  changes  in  nutrition,  eto. 
But  in  higher  animals  the  reproductive  organs  are  so  highly  differentiated  from  all  other 
structures  of  the  body— to  such  an  extent  segregated  and  isolated  from  the  functions  and  activities 
appertaining  to  the  individual,  as  distinguished  from  race  life,  that  August  Weissman,  and  other 
distinguished  scientists,  have  pointed  out  that  it  is  utterly  inconceivable  that  the  reproductive 
substance  could  be  significantly  modified  by  any  of  the  ordinary  influences  of  the  environment 
during  the  life  time  of  an  individual. 

Darwin  himself  was  so  impressed  with  this  that  he  professed  hesitation  and  but  small 
confidence  in  his  own  theory  of  Pangenesis;  considered  it  as  a  temporary  expedient  only. 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  19 

Brutes  quickly  learn  the  advantage  of  those  means  of 
offense  and  defense  which  nature  has  supplied  to  their  bodies. 
But  to  teach  them  the  use  of  artificial  appliances  requires 
either  a  developed  hereditary  instinct,  or  long  training  joined 
to  a  high  degree  of  intelligence.  Could  the  two-footed 
upright  brute  from  the  beginning  have  reasoned  out  the  ad- 
vantages of  sticks  and  missiles  and  the  manner  of  handling 
them? 

This  is  the  first  part  of  the  assumption  over  again,  for 
it  presupposes  a  degree  of  intelligence  utterly  unthinkable 
in  the  case  of  these  primitive  brutes.  Only  by  being 
repeatedly  put  through  the  several  steps  in  the  process, 
can  brutes  be  taught  new  tricks  or  habits.  Civilized  man 
teaches  children  and  ignorant  adults.  But  wild  brutes  have, 
with  a  few  exceptions,  such  as  when  parent  birds  teach  their 
young  how  to  fly,  only  nature  for  a  teacher.  And  how  could 
nature  teach  a  brute  to  go  through  the  motions  of  breaking 
off  a  branch,  trimming  branchlets  off  for  a  stick,  then  grasp- 
ing and  uplifting  it  and  striking  blows,  not  at  random,  but 
carefully  aimed,  at  a  definite  object,  with  premeditated  pur- 
pose? Then  to  realize  in  mind  what  it  had  accomplished, 
and  by  what  means,  and  to  retain  the  remembrance  of  it,  as 
an  inducement  to  repeat  these  actions  voluntarily  in  future, 
is  unthinkable  in  the  case  of  the  stolid,  primitive,  two-footed 
brute. 

The  unimpressionable  stolidity  of  savages,  even,  is  a 
well-known  fact,  and  it  has  been  demonstrated  that,  on  the 
average,  this  stolidity  differs  directly  as  the  time  distance 
from  civilization.  How  dense  then  must  have  been  the  dull- 
ness of  our  brute  ancestors ! 

Nature  teaches  by  frequent  repetitions  of  incidents  (so- 
called  accidents)  which  directly  induce,  step  by  step,  the 
various  consecutive,  coherent  motions  or  actions  which,  when 


20  PSYCHIC   AND  ECONOMIC   RESULTS 

compounded  in  a  certain  order  with  duly  adjusted  emphasis, 
constitute  a  habit  or  habitual  mode  of  action.  Any  person 
who  imagines  that  a  complex  and  lengthy  series  of  accidents, 
such  as  would  be  competent  to  induce  a  stolid  brute  to  go 
through  the  motions  and  mental  changes  recited  in  the  last 
paragraph  but  one,  could  be  repeated  in  the  same  order,  and 
with  like  emphasis,  so  frequently  in  the  experience  of  that 
brute  as  to  teach  him  the  habit  of  making  those  motions 
deliberately,  recklessly  abuses  the  representative  faculty. 

It  is  very  different,  however,  with  an  instinct;  for  this 
originates  by  variation,  through  heredity  and  selection.  In 
sexually  reproducing  organisms  variation  is  the  cause  of  an 
infinite  variety  of  living  forms  and  of  the  structural  arrange- 
ments within  their  bodies.  No  specimen  among  these  organ- 
isms and  structural  arrangements  is  in  every  particular  ex- 
actly like  any  other.  The  vast  majority  of  them  is  either 
not  at  all,  or  at  best  but  poorly,  adapted  to  their  environ- 
ing conditions.  At  rare  intervals  specimens  occur  which  are 
specially  and  wonderfully  adapted.  This  applies  to  races, 
individuals,  organs,  tissues  and  structural  arrangements.  It 
applies  to  the  nervous  system  and  to  nerve  substance  and  to 
structural  arrangements  of  nerves. 

Among  the  rarely  occurring  structural  arrangements  of 
nerves  there  have  happened  some  which  are  capable  of  ini- 
tiating motions,  which,  under  suitable  conditions,  favor  the 
reproduction  and  survival  of  the  type  of  organisms  possess- 
ing these  structures  and  performing  these  motions.  Such 
nerve  structures  are  the  causes  of  so-called  instinctive  actions, 
which,  being  selected,  are  then  transmitted  as  race  instincts. 

The  wonderful  instinct  of  a  certain  wasp,  which  stings 
a  particular  kind  of  caterpillar  in  nine  definite  places,  just 
where  the  nine  principal  ganglia  of  the  creature  are  situated, 
and  then  deposits  its  eggs  in  the  body  of  the  animal,  is  of 


OF  MAN'S   PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  21 

this  sort.  The  stinging  of  the  nine  ganglia  completely  par- 
alizes  the  caterpillar,  but  does  not  kill  it.  The  grubs,  devel- 
oping from  the  eggs  deposited  in  the  body,  feed  on  the  liv- 
ing flesh  of  their  host  and  are  thus  enabled  to  survive.  These 
caterpillars  live  in  hot  countries.  If,  instead  of  being  par- 
alized,  they  were  stung  dead,  then  their  flesh  would  rapidly 
putrefy  and  the  young  wasp  grubs,  instead  of  being  nour- 
ished by  wholesome  food,  would  be  poisoned.  That  kind  of 
wasp  would  become  extinct. 

Undoubtedly  myriads  of  varieties  of  wasps  died  out  be- 
cause they  did  not  sting  in  the  exact  places  where  the  nine 
ganglia  are  located.  At  last  one  kind  was  born  with  nerve 
structures  so  precisely  adjusted  that  the  nine  stings  were 
performed  in  the  exact  localities  where  the  nine  ganglia 
are  situated.  That  kind  of  wasp  has  survived.  Thus  nature 
works  out  these  wonders  in  infinite  time,  with  infinite  variety, 
through  infinite  waste,  by  natural  selection. 

Can  reason  supply  any  explanation  of  so  wonderful  an 
instinct?  Indeed  the  explanation  seems  obvious.  There 
must  exist  a  natural  attractive  affinity  (chemical  or  other- 
wise) between  the  substance  in  the  wasp's  sting  and  the 
substance  in  the  caterpillar's  ganglia.  This  affinity,  ordi- 
narily inactive  or  only  potential,  becomes  active  when  stimu- 
lated by  the  wasp's  catching  sight  of  that  kind  of  caterpillar. 

But  the  teaching  of  a  habit  to  a  creature,  by  many 
repetitions  of  a  series  of  accidents,  is  a  very  different  mat- 
ter. This  has  neither  infinite  time  to  work  in  nor  infinite 
variety  to  work  with,  but  is  limited  in  its  educational  possi- 
bilities: to  the  lifetime  of  the  creature  it  works  on;  to  the 
narrow  capacity  of  that  brute's  intelligence;  to  the  vicissi- 
tudes of  its  stolidity  and  inattention,  and  to  the  infinitely 
great  improbability  of  a  series  of  natural  accidental  induce- 
ments being  frequently  repeated  exactly  alike  in  quality  and 


22  PSYCHIC   AND   ECONOMIC    RESULTS 

in  the  order  of  their  occurrence,  under  similarly  adjusted 
environing  circumstances. 

But  one  of  these  two-footed  upright  brutes,  in  an  effort 
at  climbing,  might  grab  a  branch  for  support,  and  then  this 
branch  might  accidentally  break  off  and  remain  in  the  brute's 
hand.  Would  not  that  teach  him  the  use  of  a  stick  ?  By  no 
means !  To  begin  with,  there  are  many  times  many  chances 
that  the  branch  would  not  be  suitable  for  a  stick,  on  account 
of  branchlets.  Then  what  should  make  the  brute  retain  it 
in  his  hand?  Not  any  intellectual  expectation  of  making 
use  of  it.  That  is  inconceivable  in  advance  of  experience, 
and  to  assume  antecedent  experience  is  to  beg  the  question. 
And  since  all  wild  creatures  avoid  avoidable  efforts,  it  is 
more  than  likely  that  brute-man  would  drop  the  stick  im- 
mediately upon  becoming  aware  that  he  had  missed  his  hold. 
Furthermore,  on  the  branch  breaking,  the  recoil  would  startle 
the  brute  and  perhaps  make  him  angry  or  afraid,  and  all 
the  more  likely  to  drop  the  stick.  To  teach  him  the  use  of 
a  stick,  it  would  have  to  be  further  assumed,  that,  imme- 
diately after  grabbing  it  and  after  the  recoil  from  breaking, 
another  accident  made  him  accidentally  lift  the  arm  and 
then  strike  a  blow.  Then,  by  further  accidental  coincidence, 
the  blow  would  have  to  fall  just  in  the  right  place,  on  some 
creature  or  object  happening  to  be  there,  at  the  exactly 
right  moment,  and  that  this  combination  of  exact  accident's 
achieved  so  impressive  a  result  in  the  life  of  the  creature 
as  to  determine  his  stolid  nature  to  remember  and  volun- 
tarily repeat  these  actions  on  future  occasions.  He  would 
have  to  say  to  himself:  "This  is  a  stick.  Sticks  come  from 
trees,  when  you  want  to  climb  and  happen  to  miss.  Sticks 
must  first  be  lifted  and  then  brought  down  violently.  That 
kills  some  animal  good  to  eat,  or  one  that  might  have  killed 
and  eaten  me,  unless  I  had  first  struck  it  with  the  stick." 


OF  MAN^S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  23 

Then  this  complex  series  of  coincident  and  precisely  ad- 
justed accidents  must  be  repeated  frequently  before  a  single 
man-brute  could  acquire  the  habit. 

Even  so  comparatively  simple  an  accident  as  that  a 
grabbed  branch,  fit  for  a  stick,  should  break  off  and  remain 
in  the  hand,  not  to  mention  the  subsequent  series  of  necea- 
sary  accidents,  must  have  remained  of  exceedingly  rare  oc- 
currence in  the  life  of  any  one  of  our  two-footed  ancestors. 
For  they  were  not  fitted  for  tree  life.  Their  two  feet  made 
them  unfit  for  it.  Their  proper  habitat  was  the  solid  earth. 
On  this  their  conditions  were  sufficiently  against  them,  but 
up  in  the  branches  of  trees,  apes,  serpent's  and  felines  had 
them  at  much  greater  disadvantage. 

The  assumption  that  brute-man  used  sticks  as  weapons, 
before  his  intelligence  had  made  considerable  advance,  is 
for  these  reasons  untenable. 

Passing  from  sticks  to  stones,  it  seems  even  more  im- 
probable that  the  two-footed  brute  should  have  learned  the 
use  of  missiles  from  the  frequent  repetitions  of  accidents 
competent  to  induce  the  motions  involved  in  the  seizing  and 
throwing  of  stones  at  a  mark. 

For,  while  standing  or  moving,  the  hands  of  the  two- 
footed  upright  creature  dangle  from  eighteen  to  thirty  inches 
above  ground,  and  at  that  elevation  can  never  come  accident- 
ally in  contact  with  stones.  When  in  a  sitting  or  horizontal 
attitude,  the  accidental  contact  with  stones  is  more  probable; 
but  what  accident  should  induce  a  brute  to  lift,  swing,  and 
throw  a  stone  at  a  definite  mark,  with  a  definite  purpose, 
in  advance  of  experience?  While  the  contact  might  be  acci- 
dental, it  is  utterly  unthinkable,  that  from  a  sitting  or  pros- 
trate position,  the  lifting,  swinging,  throwing,  etc.,  could 
be  so.  It  must,  if  occurring  at  all,  in  those  positions  always 
be  on  purpose.  And  purpose  presupposes  antecedent  expe- 


24  PSYCHIC   AND  ECONOMIC   RESULTS 

rience,  which  is  begging  the  question.  This  applies  equally 
to  sticks  and  stones. 

The  same  line  of  reasoning  applies  here,  a  fortiori,  which 
was  followed  in  detail  in  the  matter  of  sticks,  and  it  leads 
to  the  same  conclusion,  viz.,  that  such  an  assumption  is  un- 
tenable. 

And  yet  it  is  a  well-known  fact  that  apes  use  sticks  and 
missiles.  Their  natural  relation  to  these  appliances,  however, 
accounts  for  this  fact,  in  a  way  which  is  not  applicable  to  the 
man-brute.  For  whether  resting  or  moving  in  his  natural 
habitat,  among  the  aboriginal  forests,  an  ape  is  distinguished 
from  the  two-footed  upright  brute  by  generally  having  one 
or  more  of  his  hands  grasping  the  branches  of  trees.  From 
the  weight  of  his  body  or  the  muscular  pressure  of  his 
hands,  it  must  frequently  happen,  that  one  of  these  branches 
breaks  and  remains  in  a  hand.  Nor  would  he  then  be  as 
liable  to  receive  the  recoil  and  consequent  perturbation  as  the 
man-brute.  For  he  supports  himself  by  holding  on  with 
several  hands  to  various  parts  of  a  tree.  With  the  frequent 
natural  repetitions  of  such  incidents,  it  seems  not  at  all  im- 
probable that  an  occasional  coincidence  might  induce  the 
lifting  of  a  stick  and  striking  of  an  accidental  blow.  There- 
fore, would  the  two-footed  brute  not,  but  the  ape  might,  be 
taught  the  use  of  sticks,  in  the  natural  course  of  events. 

As  to  missiles,  it  should  be  further  observed,  that  apes 
are  almost  continually  among  the  branches  of  trees,  where 
fruits  and  nuts  grow  and  where  dead  branches  occur,  and 
that,  therefore,  it  cannot  be  a  rare  experience  for  these 
creatures  to  observe  a  fruit,  nut  or  dead  branch  break  off 
and  fall  to  the  ground.  Occasionally  a  fruit  or  nut,  singled 
out  or  seized  by  one,  may  drop;  or  a  branch  which  is  held 
may  break.  Then,  if  the  falling  object  happens  to  strike 
a  creature  below,  that  is  a  lesson  in  the  effect  produced  by 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  25 

missiles.  Actions  done  ordinarily  for  a  purpose  are  some- 
times playfully  repeated  without  a  purpose.  So  fruits  and 
nuts  may  be  plucked  playfully  and  with  no  purpose  of  eat- 
ing them,  and  then  dropped.  This  might  teach  how  use 
can  be  made  of  fruits  and  nuts  for  missiles.  Sometimes  a 
fruit  or  nut  after  being  plucked,  may  prove  unsatisfactory, 
and  then  the  ape  may  throw  it  away  in  anger.  Whether  the 
thing  so  thrown  away  strikes  another  creature  or  not,  it  is 
very  likely  to  teach  a  lesson  in  the  effect  of  missiles.  It  fol- 
lows, therefore,  that  accidents  and  incidents  of  frequent  oc- 
currence, in  the  natural  course  of  events  in  an  ape's  life,  are 
particularly  favorable  to  making  these  creatures  familiar 
with  the  nature  and  uses  of  clubs  and  missiles,  but  tlie  very 
opposite  is  true  with  reference  to  the  two-footed  upright 
ancestors  of  man. 

It  is  all  the  more  wonderful,  and  calls  for  explanation, 
that  apes  handle  these  artificial  tools  and  weapons  so  rarely 
and  so  clumsily,  while  evidence  is  not  lacking  that  primi- 
tive man  in  the  paleolithic  period  already  used  them  uni- 
versally and  skillfully.  In  their  natural  habitats,  up  among 
the  branches  of  the  forest  trees,  apes,  by  the  possession  of 
four  hands,  to  which,  in  the  case  of  a  large  division,  a  pre- 
hensile tail  is  added,  are  the  supreme  masters  of  the  situa- 
tion and  have  no  need  of  arming  themselves  artificially. 
Even  if  they  happen  to  be  on  the  ground  and  there  meet 
with  a  creature  they  wish  to  capture,  or  one  they  are  afraid 
of,  it  is  ordinarily  far  more  easy  for  them,  and  far  more 
promising  of  success,  to  swing  themselves  up  among  their 
native  branches  and  do  battle  from  above;  and  travellers 
tell  of  Orangs  and  Gorillas  which,  from  a  low  hanging 
branch  on  which  they  rest,  watch  for  creatures  that  pass  un- 
derneath. Then  they  reach  out,  grab  the  passer  around  the 


26  PSYCHIC   AND  ECONOMIC   RESULTS 

throat  and  lift  him  from  the  ground  until  he  dies  from  suffo- 
cation. 

The  occasions  are  very  rare  when  sticks  or  missiles  are 
of  any  real  use  to  apes.  Neither  have  they  the  intelligence 
to  suspect  the  multiform  potential  applicability  of  those 
articles.  Besides,  they  are  not  organically  fitted  to  make 
skillful  use  of  them.  The  difference  between  their  bodies 
and  that  of  the  two-footed  upright  brute  is  sufficient  to  make 
them  rather  clumsy  and  inaccurate  in  handling  them.  Such 
habits  have  no  survival  value  for  them. 

For  these  reasons,  though  they  had  learned  their  appli- 
cability long  before  the  upright  brutes,  yet  they  have  never 
become  articles  of  common  use  among  them,  nor  have  they 
ever  improved  themselves  in  the  manner  of  handling  them. 

How  were  the  upright  brutes  taught  to  avail  themselves 
of  these  arms  and  tools?  It  seems  probable  that  they  learned 
their  application  from  observing  the  clumsy  and  rare  use 
made  of  them  by  their  ape  relatives.  Since  it  has  been 
proven  that  these  habits  could  positively  never  have  been 
acquired  by  the  occurrence  of  accidents  or  incidents  in  the 
natural  course  of  events,  they  must  have  been  learned  by 
some  indirect  method.  No  other  indirect  method  is  so  sim- 
ple, so  natural,  so  suggested  by  the  facts  known  in  this  case. 
Therefore,  on  the  rule  of  parsimony,  this  explanation  should 
not  be  rejected  until  a  better  one  has  been  found. 

This  leads  to  a  discussion  of  the  nature  of  the  imita- 
tive faculty.  This  inheres  in  the  nervous  system,  and  directly 
differs  in  degree  as  the  sensitiveness  of  its  owner.  It  tends 
to  reproduce  in  him  motions  which  he  has  observed  in  other 
creatures,  and  does  this  because  the  perception  of  these  mo- 
tions in  another  excites  the  corresponding  nerve  tracts  in 
the  perceiving  individual.  Sympathy  differs  from  this  fac- 
ulty only  in  this,  that  it  reproduces  feelings,  emotions  and 


Off  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  27 

thoughts  perceived  in  another.  But  since  apes  live  in  trees 
and  the  man-brute  on  the  ground;  since  the  former  are  well 
fitted  by  nature  for  the  struggle  for  existence  and  the  latter 
are  not;  the  opportunities  must  have  been  few  and  rare  when 
our  brute  ancestors  could  observe  these  habits,  so  as  to  be 
induced  to  imitate  them.  Neither  would  our  brute  ancestors 
be  likely  to  perceive  how  these  habits  could  be  made  useful, 
seeing  that  apes  handle  sticks  and  missiles  clumsily.  Only 
after  many  generations,  when  a  higher  order  of  intelligence 
enabled  our  ancestors  to  reason  from  the  clumsy  movements 
of  apes  to  the  great  possibilities  of  the  skillful  use  of  clubs 
and  missiles  does  it  seem  probable  that  the  brightest  of  them 
may  have  experimented  how  to  handle  them.2 


2.  Sir  John  Lubbock  in  "The  Origin  of  Civilization,  etc.,"  tells 
of  monkeys  which  use  stones  to  crack  nuts,  of  one  who  used  a 
stick  to  open  a  lid  of  a  box,  and  that  the  house  of  the  Chimpanzee 
is  equal  to  some  of  the  rude  habitations  of  savages. 

Margaret  Selenka,  who  with  her  husband,  Emil,  spent  con- 
siderable time  in  the  aboriginal  forests  of  the  Sunda  Islands,  for 
the  purpose  of  observing  the  habits  of  the  Anthropoids,  reports  a 
most  interesting  incident.  They  had  for  a  long  time  made  unsus- 
cessful  attempts  to  capture  a  living  specimen  of  the  Gibbons.  Sud- 
denly, one  day,  when  in  the  forest,  she  touched  his  arm  and  pointed 
to  a  female  with  her  baby  crouching  on  one  of  the  upper  branches 
of  a  tall  tree.  Quickly  he  aimed  his  rifle  and  fired,  and  the  wounded 
female  still  holding  her  baby  dropped  to  the  ground  near  the  trunk 
of  the  tree.  Immediately  thereafter  they  perceived  a  large  crowd 
of  male  and  female  Gibbons  of  various  ages  scamper  away  from 
that  part  of  the  forest  and  disappear.  Then  they  set  to  work  to 
capture  the  wounded  female,  who  fought  furiously,  and  while  they 
were  thus  occupied  their  attention  was  attracted  by  a  noise  much 
like  the  approach  of  a  crowd  of  people,  and  on  looking  in  the  direc- 
tion, perceived  a  troop  of  about  fifteen  tall,  full-grown  Gibbons, 
all  males,  making  directly  toward  them  with  gestures  of  fierce 
anger.  The  rifle  being  unloaded,  they  had  no  desire  to  encounter 
these  angry  brutes  and  fled  precipitously,  observing  from  the 
distance  that  the  troop  proceeded  no  further  than  the  wounded 
female  and  her  young,  which  they  lifted  up  tenderly  and  carried 
away.  Evidently  these  males  had  simply  taken  their  females  and 
youn^  to  a  place  of  safety  and  then  returned  to  rescue  their  wounded. 

The  same  travelers  report  that  it  is  an  inspiring  sensation  to 
hear  the  sound  of  the  long-drawn-out  musical  laughter  with  whiHi 


28  PSYCHIC   AND  ECONOMIC   RESULTS 

Hundreds  or  thousands  of  generations  must  have  passed 
before  that  status  was  reached! 

This  impartial  discussion  of  the  assumption,  stated  on 
page  17,  shows  the  same  to  be  without  foundation  in  either 
fact  or  reason,  and  utterly  untenable. 

We  may,  therefore,  with  increased  confidence,  resume  the 
argument  where  we  left  it. 

The  possession  of  superior  intelligence  would,  in  the 
struggle  for  existence,  surely  prove  to  be  of  incalculably 
great  advantage  to  any  kind  of  creature,  and  since  all  other 
types  of  life  now  existing,  excepting  ours,  have  survived  with- 
out it,  it  is  certain  that  special  causes,  prevailing  exclusively 
in  our  race,  must  have  been  at  work  to  produce  the  marvel- 
ous phenomenon  of  human  intelligence.3 


the  gibbons  salute  the  dawn  of  daylight;  that  it  entirely  relieves 
the  sense  of  extreme  isolation,  which  human  beings  are  apt  to  feel 
when  sojourning  during  lengthy  periods  in  the  depth  of  the  aborig- 
inal forest. 

3.  If  it  be  contended  that  there  exists  an  inter-dependence  be- 
tween two  feet,  hands  and  the  other  structures  on  which  the  upright 
attitude  depends,  on  the  one  side,  and  the  possession  of  a  high 
degree  of  intelligence,  on  the  other,  then  the  reply  is,  firstly:  That 
this  phase  of  the  argument  will  be  part  of  the  subject  matter  of 
the  next  chapter;  secondly,  That  there  cannot  be  any  direct  de- 
pendence one  on  the  other,  but  only  an  interdependence  between 
intelligence  and  the  elevation  above  ground  of  the  organs  of  sight, 
hearing,  smell  and  touch,  and  that  the  extent  of  this  elevation  is 
dependent  on  the  upright  attitude. 

The  scope  of  these  sense  organs,  except  touch,  for  mathematical 
reasons  increases  as  the  squares  of  their  elevations  above  the  ground. 
But  since  the  impediments  to  the  passage  of  light  and  sound  in- 
crease very  rapidly,  the  nearer  the  surface  of  the  ground  is  ap- 
proached, therefore,  the  real  ratio  of  increase  is  much  greater  than 
the  ratio  above  stated  and  probably  at  least  equal  to  the  cube  of 
the  altitude. 

No  observer  of  four-footed  animals  can  have  failed  to  notice 
that  the  mentally  energetic  and  intellectually  superior  among 
them  make  frequent  efforts  to  elevate  their  heads  for  the  purpose  of 
hearing  and  seeing,  more  especially,  when  their  curiosity  or  appre- 
hension is  aroused,  having  learned,  by  experience  no  doubt,  the 
advantage  of  this  mode  of  conduct. 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  29 

The  extent'  of  the  survival  value,  of  any  new  trait  or 
faculty  appearing  in  a  race,  depends  on  these  three  factors: 
1st.  The  urgency  of  the  need  for  it.  2nd.  The  range  of  its 
applicability.  3rd.  The  existence  of  incentives  to  its  use. 
Need  is  not  a  direct  incentive  to  use,  for  it  takes  experience 
and  intelligence  to  perceive  and  remember  the  relation  ex- 
isting between  the  need  for  something  and  the  activity  of 
the  faculty  competent  to  supply  the  need. 

Surely  the  disabilities,  infirmities  and  perils  of  primi- 
tive man  sufficiently  established  the  urgency  of  the  need 
of  any  faculty  which  had  survival  value;  and  no  other  fac- 
ulty is  of  such  universal,  infinite  applicability  in  adjusting 
a  creature  to  it's  environment  as  intelligence.  Therefore,  to 
show  the  overwhelming  survival  value  of  intelligence  in  the 
case  of  the  primitive  brute  ancestry  of  the  human  race,  it 
only  remains  necessary  to  ascertain  whether  or  not,  during 
the  long  interval  referred  to,  there  existed  anything  in  the 
organism  of  man's  bin  te  ancestors  which  would  be  a  natural 
and  continuous  incentive  for  the  active  use  of  intelligence. 

It  is  probable,  from  the  disabilities  named  in  Chapter  I 
and  the  absence  of  hair,  fur  and  thick  hide,  that  during  this 
long  interval  our  brute  ancestors  frequently  served  as  a  choice 
article  of  diet  for  the  great  contemporary  monsters  and 
carnivorae,  which  rarely  permitted  isolated  specimens  to  reach 
that  age  when  the  bones  have  hardened  sufficiently  to  make 
them  difficult  to  masticate. 

This  inference  derives  strong  support  from  the  extreme 
scarcity  of  human  fossils.  At  the  same  time  it  offers  a  plausi- 
ble explanation  of  this  unique  phenomenon.4  Under  such 


4.  Organic  remains  can  only  be  fossilized  when  air,  germs, 
water,  etc.,  are  excluded,  or  when  the  remains  have  been  hermetic- 
ally sealed.  But  this  applies  to  all  such  remains  equally,  and,  there- 


30  PSYCHIC   AND   ECONOMIC    RESULTS 

circumstances,  if  any  of  our  brute  ancestors  of  that  period 
were  distinguished  by  any  peculiarity,  not  possessed  by  other 
creatures,  tending  to  stimulate  them  in  the  use  of  whatever 
degree  of  intelligence  they  were  endowed  with,  then  this 
slight  difference  in  incentive  to  it's  use  might  offer  a  point 
of  departure,  a  plane  of  cleavage,  where  the  small  end  of  the 
wedge  of  natural  selection  might  enter,  and  this,  in  prac- 
tically infinite  time,  might  lead  to  a  degree  of  intelligence 
such  as  is  displayed  by  the  most  advanced  minds  of  our  gen- 
eration.5 


fore,  does  not  explain  the  unique  scarcity  of  fossil  human  remains, 
neither  can  this  be  explained  by  the  assumption  that  the  upright 
brute  is  the  most  recent  form  of  mammalia.  For  in  the  scarcity  of 
human  fossils  we  have  very  nearly  the  only  evidence  and  argument 
to  support  the  above  mentioned  assumption.  This  would  be  reason- 
ing in  a  circle.  If  it  is  contended,  however,  that  the  upright  brute 
is  the  most  evolved  form  of  life,  and  that  for  this  reason  it  follows 
from  the  theory  of  evolution,  that  it  must  be  the  most  recent,  then 
the  reply  can  be  justly  made,  that  by  the  most  evolved  form  is 
meant,  "the  form  most  adapted  to  its  environment,"  and  that  the 
first  chapter  of  these  essays  proves  most  conclusively  that  the 
upright  brute,  of  all  mammalian  types  at  the  time  of  its  first  ap- 
pearance, was  the  least  adapted  to  its  natural  environment.  That 
adaptation  only  came  after  the  unadapted  natural  form  was  sup- 
plemented by  artificial  means,  viz,  clubs  and  missiles.  It  is  not  at 
all  improbable  that  the  two-footed  brute  is  a  variation  from  a  kind 
of  brutes  now  extinct,  which  were  the  ancestors  of  the  quadrumana, 
as  well  as  of  the  bipeds.  This,  in  fact,  is  a  belief  expressed  by 
Charles  Darwin  and  a  number  of  his  most  eminent  contemporaries 
and  followers.  On  this  theory  the  human  type  may  be  the  more 
ancient  of  the  two  and  it  requires  evidence  to  prove  its  assumed 
recency. 

5.  To  account  for  the  wonderful  survival  of  the  two-footed  up- 
right brute,  it  has  been  suggested  that,  in  the  earlier  generations, 
before  the  expansion  of  intelligence  and  the  adoption  of  sticks  and 
missiles  had  taken  place,  our  ancestors  dwelled  in  some  favored  spot 
where  no  fierce  or  powerful  competitors  or  enemies  existed;  that 
there  they  acquired  a  high  order  of  intelligence  and  became  proficient 
in  the  use  of  tools  and  weapons,  and  then  issued  forth  to  conquer  the 
earth.  This  is  obviously  a  purely  arbitrary  guess  suggested  by  the 
story  of  the  garden  of  Eden.  Only  a  miracle  could  have  kept  such  re- 
treats from  t>eing  overrun,  by  man's  competitors  and  enemies,  or 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  31 

For  when,  during  a  long  period,  measured  in  this  case 
probably  by  hundreds  of  thousands,  if  not  millions  of  years, 
destructive  agencies  eliminate  the  great  majority  of  certain 
creatures  before  they  can  reach  the  reproductive  age,  then 
natural  selection  is  able  to  work  on  a  very  small  margin, 
and  still  by  the  accumulation  of  many  of  these  small  mar- 
gins from  generation  to  generation,  through  many  ages,  to 
accomplish  astonishingly  cumulative  results.  For  natural 
selection  affects  both  sexes,  and  the  small  margin,  possessed 
by  each  individual  joining  in  the  reproductive  act,  gives  to 
the  offspring  a  hereditary  tendency  of  two  such  small  margins. 
The  old  story  of  the  grains  of  wheat  asked  for  by  the  in- 
ventor of  the  game  of  chess,  is  a  striking  illustration  of  the 
stupendous  cumulative  possibilities  of  such  a  process  of  ad- 
dition, which  makes  progress  as  the  powers  of  two.6  The 
nature  of  this  incentive  will  be  discussed  in  Chapter  III. 


from  leaving  to  posterity  some  evidence  of  the  former  existence  of 
these  asylums.  Furthermore,  the  unique  and  enormous  expansion 
of  human  intelligence  would  seem  miraculous,  if  the  helplessness  of 
our  ancestry  and  the  absence  of  such  hypothetical  safe  retreats  had 
not  been  the  inevitable  exciting  cause  of  it. 

6.  The  story  runs  that  the  inventor,  when  requested  to  name 
his  own  reward,  asked  for  two  grains  of  wheat  for  the  first  square, 
double  that  for  the  second,  double  that  for  the  third,  and  so  on  to 
the  sixty-fourth.  To  express,  in  grains  of  wheat,  the  price  of  the 
sixty-fourth  square,  requires  a  figure  of  twenty-two  integrals,  and 
by  doubling  this  figure  the  price  of  all  the  sixty-four  squares  is 
obtained.  From  an  'estimate  of  200  grains  of  wheat  to  the  cubic 
inch,  obtained  by  trial,  it  follows  that  for  1,000,000  grains  it  takes 
three  cubic  feet,  and  the  whole  number  of  grains  of  wheat  neces- 
sary to  pay  the  reward  requires  a  space  of  20,000,000  cubic  miles 
to  contain  them.  To  form  an  idea  of  so  enormous  a  quantity  of 
wheat  it  may  be  helpful  to  state  that  it  would  be  sufficient  to  cover 
the  whole  surface  of  the  earth,  both  land  and  water,  to  a  depth  of 
about  300  feet. 


32  PSYCHIC   AND   ECONOMIC    RESULTS 

CHAPTEE  III. 

FORCING    THE    GROWTH    OF    INTELLIGENCE. 

In  the  two  previous  chapters  the  aim  has  been  to  make 
it  clear  to  the  reader  that,  firstly,,  with  the  beginning  of  those 
slight  physical  differences  which  distinguish  mankind  from 
the  quadrumana,  the  race  would  have  been  doomed  to  speedy 
extermination  except  for  the  wonderful  progress  of  human 
intelligence ;  secondly,  that  a  higher  type  of  intelligence,  like 
all  other  new  traits,  must  have  emerged  from  small  begin- 
nings through  variation  by  sexual  reproduction;  thirdly,  that 
a  special  incentive  must  have  existed  in  the  human  race, 
which  is  not  found  in  any  other,  to  make  our  brute  ancestors 
exercise  their  intelligence,  more  extensively  than  other  gen- 
era do. 

It  has  already  been  mentioned  that  the  higher  eleva- 
tion of  the  organs  of  sight  and  hearing  increases  their  poten- 
tial availability  directly  as  the  square  of  their  distance  from 
the  earth,  and  that  in  the  human  race  this  exceeds  the  height 
at  which  most  other  creatures,  even  those  much  larger  than 
man,  habitually  carry  these  sense  organs. 

The  largest  quadrupeds,  which  habitually  carry  their 
eyes  higher  than  man,  excepting  possibily  the  giraffe,  are  yet 
at  a  disadvantage  compared  with  him,  because  in  looking 
backwards  or  sideways  his  head  pivots  easily  on  the  erect 
vertebral  column.  While  they,  in  executing  these  movements, 
have  to  curve  or  even  double  the  joints  in  the  backbone  hori- 
zontally. Thus  has  the  upright  attitude  directly  caused  man 
to  survey  a  wider  field  of  vision,  sound  and  odor,  and,  there- 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  33 

fore,  to  perceive  a  greater  variety  of  phenomena  in  his  en- 
vironment than  do  any  of  his  competitors.  This  constant 
influx  of  a  much  greater  variety  of  experiences  cultivates 
activity  and  energy  of  the  mental  processes,  and  educates 
in  the  knowledge  of  the  relations  and  connections  between 
phenomena,,  and  thus  the  upright  attitude  is  erected  into  a 
constant  incentive  to  the  use  of  the  mental  faculties. 

For  escape  from  danger,  for  pursuit  of  prey,  for  getting 
food,  shelter,  etc.,  this  tendency  to  notice  a  greater  variety 
of  objects,  if  properly  used,  has  much  survival  value.  This 
value  differs  among  creatures  quantitatively,  exactly  as  their 
intelligence;  thus,  if  there  is  less  intelligence,1  (less  percep- 
tion, less  adapted  conduct  influenced  by  such  perception,) 
then  there  is  less  survival  value.  If  greater  intelligence,  then 
greater  survival  value.  Therefore,  given  conditions  in  which 
the  great  majority  perish  before  the  reproductive  age,  and, 
caeteris  paribus,  only  the  most  intelligent  of  both  sexes  sur- 
vive. A  very  small  margin  of  intelligence  above  that  pos- 
sessed by  others  is  sufficient  to  make  them  survive.  These 
most  intelligent  specimens  of  one  generation,  according  to 
the  law  of  progressive  accumulations  explained  in  the  last 
paragraph  of  Chapter  II,  would  then  reproduce  a  new  gen- 
eration, inheriting  a  still  higher  order  of  intelligence;  of 
which,  again,  the  most  intelligent  only  would  survive  to  re- 
produce another  generation  inheriting  still  another  increase 
of  intelligence,  and  so  on  for  many,  many  generations. 

Thus  the  incentive  supplied  by  the  erect  stature  is,  by 
itself,  sufficient  to  account  for  the  emergence  from  varia- 
tions, by  selection,  of  a  very  intelligent  type  of  humanity, 


1.  The  word  intelligence  is  used  in  the  text,  to  designate  the 
faculty  by  which  experiences  are  acquired,  preserved,  compared, 
classified,  etc.,  and  combined  into  conceptions,  inferences,  conclu- 
sions, etc. 


34  PSYCHIC   AND  ECONOMIC   RESULTS 

much  more  competent  to  battle  in  the  struggle  for  existence 
against  the  odds  arising  out  of  its  unique  organism,  than 
earlier  generations  were,  but  it  does  not  explain  the  exist- 
ence of  a  creature  so  enormously  in  advance  of  every  other 
in  intelligence  as  to  acquire  undisputed  supremacy  on  earth, 
and  the  control  of  those  inexorable  forces  of  nature,  which, 
although  they  were  once  the  merciless  masters  of  every  living 
thing,  our  ancestors  included,  are  now  our  tools  and  slaves 
to  serve  us  as  we  choose.  To  account  for  this  other  causes 
must  be  searched  for. 

When  looking  at  specimens  of  nude  art  one  is  often  im- 
pressed with  the  grace  and  dignity  of  the  human  form  in 
the  upright  attitude.  Oblivious  of  the  efforts  and  pains  it 
costs  babies,  invalids  and  tired  people  to  maintain  this  posi- 
tion, the  mind,  at  such  times,  is  likely  to  dwell  only  on  the 
natural  ease  and  unconcern  with  which  it  comes  to  healthy 
persons.  Indeed,  those  unfamiliar  with  anatomy,  may  per- 
haps be  surprised  to  learn  that  the  muscles,  tendons,  bones, 
nerves,  etc.,  concerned  in  maintaining  this  attitude,  consti- 
tute.a  mechanism  of  higher  complexity  and  greater  adapta- 
bility than  any  found  among  the  higher  mammals  below 
man.  This  wonderful  adaptability  of  the  human  organism 
to  the  rarest  and  most  delicate  mutations  in  the  environment, 
becomes  most  strikingly  impressive,  when  we  reflect  on  the 
fact  that  the  bodily  part's  above  indicated  interact  and  co- 
operate with  arms,  hands,  thumbs,  fingers,  limbs,  feet  and  toes. 

The  creatures  below  man  can,  on  the  contrary,  only  re- 
spond to  comparatively  few  general  and  fundamental  de- 
mands made  on  them  by  the  environment,  such  as  recur  with 
comparative  regularity  and  frequency,  to  which  they  attempt 
to  adjust  themselves  by  defense,  flight,  pursuit,  retirement  to 
shelter,  etc.  Nor  is  the  high  degree  of  adaptability  possessed 
by  man  required  in  their  case.  For  their  bodies  are  supplied 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  35 

with  natural  coverings,  which  change  in  density  to  corre- 
spond with  the  variations  in  the  climates  of  their  habitats. 
Besides  this  they  are  supplied  with  natural  means  of  offense,, 
defense,  and  escape,  and,  therefore,  susceptible  to  only  a 
minimum  of  risks,  as  compared  with  the  maximum  to  which 
brute-man  was  exposed. 

For  these  reasons  did  the  survival  of  the  two-footed 
brute  depend  from  the  very  beginning,  much  less  on  the 
natural  adaptation  of  his  organism  to  his  environment,  but 
much  more  on  the  adjustment  of  his  conduct  to  those  changes, 
both  great  and  small,  in  the  constantly  varying  order  of  the 
environment  which  occur  from  moment  to  moment.  Con- 
duct such  as  this  cannot  be  accomplished  by  creatures  less 
fitted  than  man  for  an  almost  infinite  variety  of  compound 
concerted  movements. 

Before  the  bearing  of  the  above  facts  on  the  increasing 
growth  of  human  intelligence  can  be  fully  appreciated,  men- 
tion must  be  made  of  a  peculiarity  of  nerve  cells.  Other 
cells,  when  worn  out  by  functional  activity,  die,  are  cast 
off  and  replaced,  by  new  cells.  Nerve  cells,  on  the  contrary, 
do  not  ordinarily  die  from  exhaustion  by  functional  activity, 
nor  are  then  cast  off  and  replaced  by  new  cells,  but  merely 
shrivel,  and  subsequently,  after  being  nourished,  expand 
again,  fill  out,  and  resume  their  functional  activity. 

Memory,  habit,  and  character,  probably  depend  on  this 
structural  permanence  of  nerve  cells,  (see  Appendix,  Note  1) 
but  we  are  not  here  concerned  with  the  physical  basis  of  con- 
scious memory,  etc.,  rather  with  a  peculiarity  of  the  D^rvous 
system  which  may  perhaps  be  designated  as  its  unconscious 
memory,  and  described  as  follows:  When  externally  ini* 
tiated  currents  of  nerve  force,  after  moving  along  afferent 
nerves  and  through  various  ganglia  and  centers,  pass  through 
consciousness,  issuing  thence  through  judgment  and  will,  to 


36  PSYCHIC   AND  ECONOMIC   RESULTS 

move  along  efferent  nerves,  into  muscular  tissues,  producing 
correlated,  concerted  motions  thereby,  that  is  to  say,  conduct, 
then  if,  later,  externally  initiated  currents  cause  the  above 
recited  series  of  actions  to  be  repeated,  from  time  to  time, 
then  the  whole  series,  if  repeated  often  enough,  becomes 
organized  in  the  nervous  system,  in  such  manner  that,  upon 
merely  accidental  repetition  of  a  term  in  it,  the  whole 
series  is  re-enacted  in  its  original  order,  but  without  the 
exercise  of  judgment  or  will,  and  often  without  consciousness. 

If  the  series  is  simple,  consisting  of  few  terms,  then 
very  few  repetitions  suffice;  if  it  be  complex,  consisting  of 
many  terms,  then  more  numerous  repetitions  are  required 
before  the  organization  is  accomplished. 

It  follows,  then,  that  the  few,  simple,  often  repeated 
and  similar  adjustments,  which  creatures  below  man  are 
competent  to  perform,  will  quickly  become  organized,  and 
that,  therefore,  the  occasions  must  be  rare  when  their  incipi- 
ent intelligence,  will,  or  judgment  is  called  into  action. 

By  contrast,  the  almost  infinite  variety  of  highly  com- 
plex, coordinated  actions,  by  which  alone  human  life  can 
be  maintained,  demands  the  frequent  exercise  of  all  these 
faculties,  to  their  utmost  capacity.  And  since  the  extent 
of  adaptation  must  necessarily  be  proportioned  to  the  degree 
of  development  attained  by  these  faculties;  therefore  has 
their  higher  development  important  survival  value.  Thus 
does  the  complexity  of  the  human  body  favor  the  growth  and 
selection  of  an  ever  increasing  human  intelligence,  and  thus 
have  the  physical  disadvantages  under  which  our  ancestors 
labored  become  the  factors  by  which  their  intelligence  was 
pushed  forward.  Let  the  reader  bear  in  mind  that  this  com- 
plexity of  organism  is  an  inseparable  concomitant  of  the 
upright  attitude,  and  a  condition  precedent  on  which  the 
possibility  of  this  posture  depends. 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  37 

The  sense  of  touch  is  the  only  means  by  which  creatures 
may  become  intimately  acquainted  with  the  qualities  or  attri- 
butes of  things. 

By  touch  we  become  aware  of  size,  form,  hardness,  soft- 
ness, roughness,  smoothness,  rest  or  motion,  sharpness,  dull- 
ness, hollowness,  solidity.  None  of  the  other  senses  can 
directly  inform  us  of  these  attributes  of  things,  but  certain 
impressions  on  the  other  senses  are  invariably  connected  with 
experiences  of  touch  which  do  directty  inform  us  of  these 
qualities.  Because  of  this  invariable  connection,,  our  minds 
automatically  infer  these  qualities  from  impressions  made 
on  the  other  senses,  even  when  the  direct  evidence  from  the 
sense  of  touch  is  absent.  It  may  seem  as  if  by  sound,  hol- 
lowness and  solidity  could  be  distinguished,  but  if  touch 
had  not  beforehand  taught  us  the  nature  of  hollowness  or 
solidity,  the  respective  sounds  could  never  teach  us  that 
lesson.  Touch,  even  here,  supplies  the  primary  experience. 

By  sight  we  can  only  distinguish  lights,  shadows,  and 
colors.  If  touch  had  not  previously  made  us  familiar  with 
things  and  their  qualities,  the  seeing  only  of  lights,  shadows, 
and  colors  would  give  us  little,  if  any  knowledge  of  their 
nature. 

The  feelings  of  muscular  tension  produced  by  expan- 
sions and  contractions  of  the  iris,  also  those  caused  by  the 
shiftings  of  the  axial  direction  of  the  eyes,  may  seem  capa- 
ble of  directly  inducing  knowledge  of  size,  form,  etc.;  but 
we  perceive  this  to  be  an  error  when  we  reflect  that  the 
former  movements  are  caused  by  changes  in  the  amount  or 
intensity  of  light,  that  the  latter  indicate  relative  location 
only,  and  that  objects  differing  widely  in  magnitude  may. 
at  different  distances,  if  they  subtend  the  same  angle  of 
vision,  look  as  if  they  were  the  same  in  size.  A  line  of  rea- 
soning similar  to  the  above  would  apply,  a  fortiori,  to  the 


38  PSYCHIC   AND   ECONOMIC    RESULTS 

senses  of  sound,  smell  and  taste.  It  follows  then,  that  touch 
is  the  only  sense  by  which  we  acquire  primary  experience 
and  familiarity  with  things  and  their  qualities. 

'Never  before,  but  only  after,  this  original  experience 
and  familiarity  has  been  acquired,  can  the  other  senses  save 
us  from  the  slow  and  sure  process  of  identification  by  touch. 
Often  a  glance  or  a  sound,  more  rarely  a  taste  or  a  smell, 
will  instantaneously  inform  us  of  a  thousand  things,  quali- 
ties, relations,  possibilities,  originally  made  familiar  by  touch. 
Thus  these  other  senses,  and  more  especially  sight  and  hear- 
ing, are  merely  useful  in  extending  and  multiplying  the 
uses  of  the  sense  of  touch.  Sometimes  the  sensations  re- 
ceived through  sight  and  hearing  inform  us  of  the  nature 
and  qualities  of  objects  great  distances  away.  At  other  times 
they  leave  us  seriously  in  doubt  as  to  these.  In  such  cases 
we  aim  to  approach  near  enough  to  touch,  and  when  we 
have  touched,  the  information  obtained  by  the  sensations  of 
contact  we  regard  as  absolutely  trustworthy.  Thus  all  our 
knowledge  primarily  depends  on  the  sense  of  touch.  Our 
other  senses  would  leave  us  forever  deplorably  ignorant  of 
the  nature  of  the  world  around  us  were  it  not  for  the  acute- 
ness  of  this  sense,  specialized  in  our  hands,  fingers  and 
thumbs. 

How  was  the  unique  superiority  and  acute  sensitiveness 
of  the  human  sense  of  touch  originated  and  preserved? 
Whether  running,  walking,  jumping,  climbing,  or  standing, 
the  human  body  is  supported  in  an  upright  attitude  by  rest- 
ing, by  means  of  the  legs,  on  the  soles  of  the  -feet.  This 
prevents  the  finger  tips,  fingers,  and  hands  from  becoming 
calloused,  or  from  having  their  sensitiveness  impaired  by 
frequent  contact  with  the  ground,  or  by  friction  or  concus- 
sion against  it,  or  by  serving  as  supports  to  the  body.  Their 
use  can  thus  become  more  exclusively  devoted  to  handling, 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  39 

pulling.,  pressing,  feeling;  the  latter  being  an  ever  present, 
unavoidable  element  in  every  one  of  these  other  actions. 

Thus  a  sensation  indicating  the  nature  and  properties 
of  the  things  touched  accompanies  every  use  made  of  the 
finger  tips,  fingers,  and  hands.  We  learn  the  nature  and 
properties  of  our  environment  while  we  handle,  pull,  press, 
etc.,  and  our  knowledge  increases  in  spite  of  carelessness  and 
inattention,  by  every  use  made  of  hands,  fingers  and  finger 
tips.  Given  an  ignorant  and  helpless  brute,  with  the  human 
body,  and  the  upright  attitude  naturally  follows.  Given  the 
upright  attitude  and,  caeteris  paribus,  the  growth,  cultiva- 
tion, preservation  and  selection  of  an  ever  more  acute, 
more  sensitive  sense  of  touch  is  assured.  No  other  creature 
has  this  advantage;  none  ever  could  possess  it,  without  com- 
bining in  its  physique  the  upright  attitude,  with  the  com- 
paratively short  arms,  fingers,  thumbs,  and  hands  as  formed 
in  the  human  body. 

How  much  sense  of  touch  do  the  creatures  below  man 
possess?  Aside  from  the  elephant  and  the  quadrumana, 
hardly  any.  The  elephant  has  a  refined  sense  of  touch  in 
the  finger-like  organ  at  the  end  of  his  trunk,  but,  being 
equivalent  only  to  one  isolated  finger,  its  educative  use  and 
scope  is  very  limited.  Yet,  there  are  good  reasons  for  the 
supposition  that,  by  virtue  of  it,  the  elephant  has  developed 
into  the  most  intelligent  of  all  beasts  below  man.  It  would 
cause  much  suffering  and  incapacity  to  quadrumana  if  they 
possessed  a  developed  sense  of  touch  in  their  finger  tips  and 
thumbs.  For  these,  in  their  case,  tounh  the  ground  or  the 
tree  in  locomotion.  Not  delicate  skin,  covering  a  fine  net- 
work of  specialized  sensitive  nerves,  is  needed  here;  but,  on 
the  contrary,  tough,  thick  skin,  callosities,  and  nails  to  pro- 
tect against  cuts,  scratches,  etc.  Therefore  natural  selection 
seems  to  have  eliminated,  in  these  four-handed  creatures, 


40  PSYCHIC   AND  ECONOMIC   RESULTS 

whatever  acuteness  the  sense  of  touch  may  have  formerly 


Other  sub-human  mammalia  can  hardly  be  supposed 
to  possess  any  sense  of  touch  worth  mentioning.  Their 
thickly  calloused  toes,  armed  with  long,  sharp  nails,  etc., 
cannot  be  supposed  to  supply  sensations  indicating  the  quali- 
ties of  things  they  come  in  contact  with,  more  definitely 
than  we  experience  when,  in  a  certain  social  game,  we  are 
blindfolded  and  made  to  examine  the  faces  of  persons  by 
means  of  a  long-handled  spoon  held  in  the  hand. 

Some  of  the  quadrumana  can  stand  erect,  but  it  is  not 
a  natural  or  comfortable  position  for  them.  Most  birds 
naturally  have  an  erect  posture,  but  only  rudimentary  sense 
of  touch.  Bats  seem  to  possess  acute  sense  of  touch,  but  like 
the  feelers  of  insects,  etc.,  it  is  adapted  only  to  the  avoid- 
ance of  collisions,  and  not  at  all  to  the  making  of  fine  dis- 
tinctions, as  is  the  human  touch. 

Cats,  rats,  mice,  many  snails  and  insect's,  and  some  other 
animals  have  long  hairlike  processes  on  their  faces,  popu- 
larly supposed  to  be  organs  of  touch,  called  feelers.  They 
can,  however,  serve  no  such  purpose  as  the  human  fingers 
and  thumbs,  because  of  the  isolation  of  the  protruding  fibres 
and  the  distance  between  them. 

That,  caeteris  paribus,  the  acuteness  of  the  sense  of 
touch  depends  on  the  coexistence  with  it  of  the  upright  atti- 
tude, has  important  bearings  on  subsequent  arguments. 

It  appears  then,  that  man  alone  has  specialized,  in  his 
finger  tips  and  thumbs,  a  highly  developed,  acute  sense  of 
touch,  adapted  to  distinguish  a  wide  range  of  sensations, 
indicating  many  and  various  properties  and  powers  possessed 
by  the  objects  in  his  environment;  knowledge  of  which  must 
forever  remain  inaccessible  to  the  rest  of  the  living  world. 
This  unique  power  possessed  by  man,  obviously  has  great  sur- 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  41 

vival  value,  which  differs  in  individuals  according  to  the  de- 
gree of  the  general  intelligence  possessed  by  them.  Here, 
then,  we  have  come  upon  a  third  and  greatest  of  the  agen- 
cies which  forced  the  growth  of  human  intelligence. 

Thus  the  emergence  of  an  ever  higher  intelligence  has 
been  forced,  in  the  human  race,  by  the  convergence  of  three 
separate  causal  agencies,  viz.,  the  erect  body,  the  excep- 
tionally complex  organism  on  which  the  possibility  of  the 
erect  body  depends,  and  the  highly  specialized  sense  of  touch 
which  is  impossible  without  the  erect  body,  and,  therefore,  a 
unique  feature,  peculiar  to  the  human  race.  For  this  rea- 
son has  it  been  impossible  in  the  past,  and  seems  impossible 
for  all  future,  that  any  living  creature  of  any  past  or  pres- 
ent type,  could  ever  develop  an  intelligence,  comparable  in 
extent,  or  quality,  to  that  possessed  by  average  humanity 
since  the  dawn  of  history;  but,  many  thousand  generations 
before  that  dawn,  man's  growing  intelligence  had  already 
become  an  important  element  in  his  make-up,  on  which  his 
survival  depended. 

Thus  the  conclusion  is  reached  that  those  same  slight 
structural  changes,  on  which  the  upright  attitude  depends, 
and  which  brought  so  many  evils  upon  our  two-footed  brute 
ancestors,  were  also  the  efficient  agencies  to  force  the  won- 
derful growth  and  manifold  expansion  of  the  primitive  in- 
telligence with  which  they  were  originally  endowed. 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS. 


OF  THi 

VERS 

OF 

43 


PAET  II. 


OTHER    PSYCHIC    AND    ECONOMIC    RESULTS. 


CHAPTER 
CHAPTER 
CHAPTER 
CHAPTER 


IV. 

V. 

VI. 

VII. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
CHAPTER      IX. 


Survival  Value  of  Hiding. 

Survival  Value  of  Temporary  Support. 

Survival  Value  of  Permanent  Support. 

The  Family,  Monogamic  Marriage,  Eco- 
nomic Dependence  of  Woman,  The 
Home. 

Complementariness  of  Sexes  on  Lines  Not 
Belated  to  Reproduction. 

Concerning  the  Origin  of  Warfare  and  the 
Division  of  Mankind  into  Classes  and 
Masses. 


NOTE    I. 
NOTE  II. 


APPENDIX. 


On  Memory. 
On  Altruism. 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  45 


CHAPTER  IV. 

SURVIVAL  VALUE  OF  HIDING. 

Reptiles  of  the  crocodile  type  can  do  considerable  injury 
with  their  tails;  and  horses,  asses,  and  their  congeners,  pos- 
sess a  mighty  means  of  defence  in  the  hoofs  of  their  hind 
legs.  Allowing  for  these  and  a  few  other  unimportant  ex- 
ceptions, it  may  however  be  laid  down  as  a  general  rule 
that  for  attack,  protection,  and  defence  the  forward  end  of 
quadrupeds  is  the  effective  part.  For  protection  we  find  here 
the  shoulders,  breast  bones,  fore  legs,  and  skull,  which  form, 
figuratively  speaking,  a  strong  rampart  or  protecting  screen 
behind  which  the  lungs,  heart,  stomach,  and  other  viscera  and 
vital  blood  vessels,  may  repose  in  comparative  security. 

Being  in  addition  shielded  by  the  dorsal  bones  and 
vertebrae  from  above,  by  the  hip  bones  and  hind  legs  from 
behind,  these  vital  organs  are  practically  free  from  liability 
to  direct  injury  by  either  an  attack,  collision,  or  impact, 
unless  it  comes  from  underneath.  In  this  forward  end  are 
also  situated  the  natural  armaments  of  the  creature,  that  is 
to  say,  the  means  for  inflicting  injury  and  death.  Here 
are  the  sharp  incisors  for  biting  and  tearing;  the  tusks, 
horns,  fangs,  claws,  etc.  Therefore,  if  a  four-legged  brute 
can  but  manage  to  keep  his  front  turned  towards  his  an- 
tagonists, his  vitals  are  in  the  safest  possible  position,  and 
his  powers  for  inflecting  injury  and  death  are  at  the  points 
of  greatest  availability. 

The  same  holds  true  of  birds;  but  by  no  means  of  the 
two-footed  upright  creature,  primitive  man,  Mother  Mature, 


46  PSYCHIC   AND   ECONOMIC    RESULTS 

which  has  so  bountifully  supplied  other  mammalia  with 
the  means  of  offence,  defence,  protection,  and  escape,  had  left 
him  naked  and  entirely  unprovided.  Hampered  besides  by 
a  deficiency  of  valves  in  the  blood  vessels  where  they  are 
needed,  and  a  surplus  where  they  are  worse  than  useless, 
with  exceptional  liability  to  femoral  and  inguinal  hernia, 
with  his  vitals,  including  the  femoral  artery,  prominently 
exposed  right  in  front,  his  condition  was  desperate  indeed. 
The  more  so,  since  these  exposed  pails  .are  situated  at  nearly 
the  same  elevation  above  ground  as  the  sharp  teeth,  tusks, 
horns,  claws  and  other  natural  means  of  offense,  possessed 
by  his  most  common  competitors  and  enemies.  Even  sheep 
and  goats  and  other  timid  or  poorly  armed  creatures  which 
he  probably  pursued  for  prey,  long  before  he  domesticated 
them,  might  claim  these  advantages  over  him.1 

In  those  early  days,  before  our  brute  ancestors  had 
learned  to  arm  themselves  artificially,  the  struggle  for  ex- 
istence among  the  higher  mammalia,  in  so  far  as  it  depends 
on  race  and  individual  competition,  must  inevitably  have 
been  of  far  greater  severity  than  indicated  by  present  ap- 
pearances. 

Wild  brutes  were  much  more  abundant  in  tropic,  semi- 


1.  It  has  not  been  thought  necessary  to  include  the  frontal  ex- 
posure of  the  reproductive  organs  among  the  disadvantages  of  the 
upright  attitude.  But  it  is  a  feature,  unique  in  the  human  race. 
In  quadrupeds  these  organs  are  concealed  and  protected  equally 
with  the  vitals,  and  by  the  same  means  mentioned  before. 

Does  not  this  frontal  exposure  of  the  reproductive  organs  ex- 
plain the  existence  of  a  psychic  peculiarity  which  distinguishes  the 
human  race  from  other  brutes,  viz,  sex  modesty?  This  explanation 
is  the  simplest  and  most  natural  and  conforms  to  the  rule  of 
parsimony. 

Chastity  is  quite  a  different  thing.  Fojr  it  refers  to  the  ex- 
clusive reservation  of  the  reproductive  organs  of  one  individual. 
to  the  use  of  a  special  individual  of  opposite  sex.  Only  the  abso- 
lute power  of  man  over  woman  could  have  originated  and  selected 
such  a  trait. 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  47 

tropic  and  temperate  climates,  than  they  are  found  today. 
For,  since  those  times,  there  has  been  an  agency  at  work, 
incalculably  more  destructive  of  mammalian  life  than  all 
other  known  causes,  viz.,  the  murderous  ingenuity  and  en- 
ergy of  our  artificially  armed  brute-ancestors.  Other  pred- 
atory brutes,  even  the  fiercest  and  most  cruel  among  them, 
take  life  or  inflict  bodily  injury,  only  when  impelled  by  the 
primary  instincts  of  self  or  race  preservation.  They  kill 
creatures  of  other  races  than  their  own,  for  food.  They  de- 
fend their  own  bodies  and  their  lives  against  the  aggressions 
of  enemies.  They  fight  with  the  males  of  their  own  race 
for  the  possession  of  females.  They  defend  the  food  they 
have  captured,  the  places  in  which  food  or  water  may  be 
found,  the  security  of  the  cave,  nest  or  other  abiding  place, 
which  they  have  occupied  or  constructed,  and  the  bodies  or 
lives  of  their  females  and  young,  against  any  aggressors. 
But  a  primary  instinct  or  necessity  is  always  the  motive  or 
cause  of  any  and  all  their  destructive  activities.  Obviously, 
therefore,  the  results  of  their  life  destroying  energies  must 
be  narrowly  limited  in  extent,  so  long  as  life  in  general 
remains  abundant;  and  it  must  remain  thus,  when  no  other 
destructive  agencies  are  at  work.  For  all  the  higher  mam- 
malia are  admirably  fitted  for  the  struggle  for  existence, 
by  being  abundantly  supplied  with  means  for  offence,  defence, 
protection,  escape  and  rapid  multiplication. 

But  now  there  enters  upon  the  scene  a  creature  most 
miserably  discriminated  against  by  the  physical  forces  of 
the  universe.  A  creature  absolutely  void  of  all  natural  means 
of  offence,  defence,  protection,  escape,  and  with  a  pitiably 
slow  rate  of  multiplication.  A  creature  afflicted  with  numer- 
ous perilous  natural  disabilities,  infirmities,  defects  and  dis- 
advantages of  physical  structure.  A  creature  by  nature  ut- 
terly unfit'  for  the  physical  struggle  for  existence,  and  kept, 


48  PSYCHIC   AND  ECONOMIC   RESULTS 

therefore,  during  many  times  many  generations,  close  to  the 
limit  of  extermination,,  escaping  only  by  a  very  narrow 
margin;  naturally  selected,  therefore,  during  these  long  gen- 
erations, on  the  line  of  greatest  muscular  strength,  greatest 
agility,  greatest  toughness,  greatest  courage,  ferocity  and 
cunning. 

This  creature,  after  a  long  period,  learns  artificially  to 
arm  himself  with  clubs,  missiles  and  with  fire,  and  applies 
all  the  qualities  slowly  acquired  by  selection  to  the  use  and 
handling  of  these  artificial  appliances.  He  kills  not  only 
for  the  purposes  above  mentioned,  which  move  other  creatures 
thereto,  but  he  kills  and  tortures  for  pastime,  for  amuse- 
ment, for  practice  in  the  skill  and  art  of  killing  and  maim- 
ing and  for  the  fun  of  competing  with  others  practicing  the 
same  art  and  skill.  All  this  practicing  cultivates  his  pas- 
sion for  such  activities,  and  that  passion  must  be  fed  by 
more  practice,  and  so  it  grows  and  increases.  "It's  a  grandly 
beautiful  day,  full  of  life  and  joy,  let's  go  and  kill  some- 
thing"— is  an  exclusively  and  distinctively  human  sentiment, 
improperly  ascribed  to  the  English  nation. 

And  how  innumerable  are  the  applications  and  exten- 
sions of  this  love  for  killing,  maiming  and  torturing.  Man 
kills  to  exterminate  pests;  to  stop  interference  with  his 
claim  of  supreme  control  of  the  earth  and  of  its  resources, 
and  of  the  application  of  all  that  lives  and  grows  on  it,  to 
his  own  special  whims,  uses  and  purposes.  He  kills  some 
creatures  for  their  feathers,  others  for  their  hides,  others 
for  their  furs,  still  others  for  their  horns,  antlers,  tails, 
tusks,  jaws,  brains,  livers,  testicles,  or  even  for  the  oils,  fats 
and  other  secretions  of  various  glands,  etc.  He  not  only 
kills,  but  exterminates  whole  races  and  genera.  Only  the 
infinitely  small  have  thus  far  baffled  his  ingenuity  and  pas- 
sion for  killing.  Man  follows  these  cruel  and  destructive 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  49 

practices,  has  the  character  adapted  to  them  even  today, 
after  being  for  at  least  several  thousand  years  under  the  in- 
fluence of  "religion,,  law,  government,  social  and  family  rela- 
tions, industry,  commerce,  cooperation,  art,  literature,  educa- 
tion, etc.,  etc."  What  must  have  been  his  character  and 
conduct  before  any  of  these  agencies  had  even  begun  to 
modify  them?  What  must  they  have  been  when  the  most 
miserable  and  helpless  brute  of  all  was,  by  the  use  of  clubs 
and  missiles,  suddenly  transformed  into  the  most  powerful? 
What  fearful  wholesale  destruction  of  life  must  have  inev- 
itably resulted  therefrom?  There  are  still  other,  though 
lesser,  reasons  for  affirming,  that  mammalian  life  must  have 
been  indescribably  much  more  abundant  on  earth  in  the  period 
prior  to  this  change  in  the  estate  of  our  brute-ancestors, 
than  it  has  been  since.2 

Quite  a  number  of  species  and  varieties  of  mammalian 
creatures  have  been  exterminated  by  man  within  the  last 
two  centuries.  Many  more,  not  now  existing,  we  find  men- 


2.  It  is  note-worthy  that,  in  our  time,  the  sport  of  hunting  is 
most  indulged  in  by  the  so-called  upper  classes;  those  who  have 
wealth,  power  and  social  position,  and  who  usually  are  the  sup- 
porters and  professors  of  some  so-called  religious  creed,  which  they 
pretend  to  derive  from  the  gentle  Nazarene.  Of  all  so-called  sports, 
however,  fishing  seems  the  most  cruel.  To  enjoy  having  a  living 
creature  dangle  for  hours  in  agonizing  and  hopeless  struggles,  until 
the  last  spark  of  life  ceases,  displays  a  refinement  of  fiendishness 
which  can  hardly  be  excused  on  the  plea  of  thoughtlessness. 

To  man  also  belongs  the  distinction  of  having  exercised  the 
greatest  ingenuity  in  the  invention  of  wonderfully  cruel  tortures  for 
his  fellowmen,  and  in  lengthening  the  lives  of  the  sufferers  so  as  to 
be  able  to  inflict  more  tortures.  And  this  has  been  done  in  the 
name  of  religion;  but  evidence  is  not  lacking  that  the  real  objects 
in  such  cases  were  pelf  and  power. 

It  is  also  remarkable  that  man  is  the  only  living  thing  which 
lends  itself  to  being  disciplined  into  surrendering  all  self-control  and 
then,  at  the  command  of  another,  inflicting  agonies  and  death  on 
fellow  creatures,  which  have  done  him  no  harm,  possess  feelings  like 
his  own,  and  against  which  he  has  not  the  slightest  reason  for  re- 
sentment. 


50  PSYCHIC   AND  ECONOMIC    RESULTS 

tioned  in  the  literature  of  earlier  centuries;  and  it  seems 
worth  while  considering  whether  the  accounts  given  in  myths, 
traditions  and  earliest  literatures  of  the  monsters  and  dragons 
of  the  primal  age,  killed  by  heroes,  are  not  more  rationally 
explained  than  heretofore  by  believing  them  to  be  accounts, 
tainted  by  the  inaccuracy  and  tendency  to  exaggeration  of 
untutored  minds,  but  yet  of  creatures  which  have  really 
existed  and  have  been  exterminated  by  man. 

Many  instances  are  credibly  reported  since  historic  times, 
when  certain  districts  were,  for  a  decade  or  two,  stripped 
of  all  human  population,  and  later  found  over-crowded  with 
many  kinds  of  wild  mammalian  brutes. 

Because  it  is  not  true,  therefore,  can  it  not  be  fairly 
objected,  to  a  small  part  of  the  above  argument,  that  cats, 
which  have  caught  mice,  sometimes  show  as  cruel  a  disposi- 
tion as  man.  Whenever  cats  hunt  mice,  they  are  moved 
thereto  by  the  primary  instinct  of  a  carnivorous  animal. 
The  playing  of  the  cat  with  the  mouse,  before  killing  it,  is 
obviously  the  artificial  result  of  domestication,  which  supplies 
the  cat  with  more  than  enough  food  to  satisfy  hunger,  and 
yet  cannot  abolish  the  primary  instinct,  which  makes  her 
catch  mice.  Then  domestication  cultivates  in  the  cat  the 
desire  for  human  approbation,  and  to  obtain  this  she  shows 
off  her  pranks  with  the  live  mouse.  Besides,  a  cat  has  not  the 
intelligence  which  would  restrain  cruelty  by  a  sense  of  the 
suffering  inflicted. 

To  recapitulate:  The  natural  enemies  and  competitors 
of  man's  brute  ancestors,  are  all  so  well  supplied  with  means 
of  offense,  defense,  protection,  escape  and  multiplication,  that 
the  ordinary  natural  agencies,  which  tend  to  keep  life  within 
bounds,  were  insufficient  to  prevent  their  increase  to  the  ex- 
tent of  crowding  the  area  over  which  our  early  progenitors 
had  scattered.  When  these  latter  had  learned  the  use  of 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  51 

clubs  and  missiles,  however,  they  devoted  themselves  to  the 
destruction  of  life  with  such  wonderful  ability  and  passionate 
energy  and  perseverance,  that  the  contrast  between  the  re- 
dundancy of  mammalian  life  before  that  period  and  its 
scarcity  afterward,  must  have  been  enormous. 

The  conclusion  then  is  safely  established,  that  when 
our  brute  ancestors  first  learned  the  use  of  clubs  and  mis- 
siles, they  lived  in  a  habitat  densely  crowded  with  mamma- 
lian life,  among  which  the  larger  carnivora  must  have  been 
a  numerous  class,  because  the  creatures  on  which  they  habitu- 
ally feed  were  so  very  plentiful. 

A  crowded  habitat  necessarily  implies  severe  and  close 
competition  for  the  primary  necessaries  of  existence,  such 
as  food,  drink,  shelter,  opportunity  to  reproduce,  etc.,  etc. 
Severe  and  close  competition  is  the  condition  which  makes 
the  struggle  for  existence  most  intense.  When  the  struggle 
for  existence  is  the  intensest,  natural  selection  is  most  exact- 
ing. Only  the  most  competent  among  the  races  and  varie- 
ties survive,  and  within  these,  again,  only  the  most  compe- 
tent individuals.  Such  conditions  could  only  react  favora- 
bly upon  the  average  excellence  and  numerical  strength  of 
the  higher  mammalia,  which  are  so  well  provided  with 
means  of  offence,  defence,  protection,  escape  and  multipli- 
cation. But  our  brute  ancestors,  while  selected  most  ex- 
actingly  with  reference  to  strength,  toughness,  agility,  cour- 
age, ferocity  and  cunning;  and  while  existing  by  ones,  twos 
and  small  family  groups  scattered  over  a  large  territory, 
could,  obviously,  maintain  their  lives  only  by  the  almost 
unremitting  exercise  of  all  their  physical  powers,  under  the 
direction  of  their  rapidly  increasing  degree  of  cunning. 

And  what  was  the  general  character  of  the  conduct  by 
which  these  few  succeeded  in  maintaining  a  brief  existence 
against  such  fearful  odds?  Self -evidently  cunning  could 


52  PSYCHIC   AND   ECONOMIC    RESULTS 

not  be  exercised,  in  the  manner  in  which  it  is  used  today. 
They  were  probably  not  fighting  against  each  other,  unless 
on  exceedingly  rare  occasions.  They  could  not  outwit  their 
fellows,  competitors,  or  enemies,  by  shrewd  bargains,  keen 
deceptions,  legal  trickery,  etc.  Clearly,  their  cunning  could 
only  be  made  available  in  directing  their  conduct  in 
contests  with  or  in  nights  from  enemies  or  competitors,  pur- 
suit of  prey,  securing  food  or  drink,  and  selecting  places 
for  shelter  and  maintaining  these  against  other  creatures 
trying  to  dispossess  them.  These  limitations  of  conduct 
imply  violently  energetic  running,  striking,  kicking,  jump- 
ing, leaping,  etc.,  on  the  physical  side,  and  alert,  circumspect 
and  cleverly  concerted  arrangement  of  these  motions  on  the 
mental  side.  Evidently  only  the  most  competent  could  main- 
tain themselves  by  such  conduct.  The  lame,  the  halt,  the 
infirm,  malformed,  deformed,  or  those  in  any  way  hindered, 
hampered,  impeded  or  interfered  with  by  any  physical  de- 
parture from  compactness,  coordination,  or  perfect  adapta- 
tion to  violent  movements,  were  evidently  incapacitated — 
utterly  unable  and  unfit  to  maintain  their  lives  in  the  strug- 
gle. And  what  is  the  bearing  of  these  conclusions  on  the 
survival  chances  of  the  human  brute-females  in  the  last 
stages  of  pregnancy? 

Evidently  the  natural  protrusion  and  extreme  disten- 
sion of  the  abdomen,  at  such  times,  intensified  the  risks 
arising  from  the  exposure  of  the  vital  parts.  The  increase 
in  weight,  bulk  and  pressure,  in  the  lower  forward  part  of 
the  pelvic  region  caused  the  body  to  be  easily  unbalanced. 
The  anterior,  posterior,  lateral  and  round  ligaments,  which 
in  quadrupeds  prevent  the  gravid  uterus  from  pitching  too 
far  toward  the  diaphragm,  are  at  least  insufficient,  if  not 
entirely  unadapted  to  such  a  purpose,  in  the  upright  human 
female.  Accurately  adjusted  and  sudden,  vigorous,  or  vio- 


OP  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  53 

lent  motions  and  efforts  are,  therefore,  if  not  impossible, 
at  least  so  very  dangerous  to  the  life  of  the  mother  and 
embryo,,  as  to  be  incompatible  with  race  survival.  But  it 
has  been  demonstrated  above  that  such  movements  were 
absolutely  necessary  to  maintain  and  obtain  the  barest  pri- 
mary daily  necessities  of  existence.  If,  then,  none  of  these 
actions  necessary  in  defense  of  life,  pursuit  of  prey,  of  food, 
or  in  obtaining  water,  or  in  escaping  from  enemies,  were 
possible  to  the  pregnant  females,  how  could  they  then  save 
their  lives  by  intellectually  initiated  conduct  at  all?  The 
race  was  doomed,  and  its  higher  intelligence  utterly  una- 
vailing, unless  they  could  thus  save  themselves. 

The  males,  immature  females  and  virgins  might  be 
ever  so  able  to  preserve  their  lives,  yet  that  could  not  secure 
the  survival  of  the  race,  for  in  the  end,  this  unavoidably  de- 
pends exclusively  on  the  preservation  of  the  pregnant  females 
and  embryos.  And  since  the  pregnant  females  were  pro- 
hibited by  their  condition  from  resorting  successfully  to  any 
of  the  modes  or  class  of  actions  before  mentioned,  there  re- 
mained but  one  line  of  intellectually  initiated  conduct  pos- 
sible for  them  with  chance  of  success,  and  this  was  the  selec- 
tion of  suitable  places  for  their  own  concealment.  Cseteris 
paribus,  and  in  average  cases,  only  so  long  as  they  continued 
in  concealment  might  their  lives  and  those  of  the  embryos 
within  them  remain  available  for  the  perpetuation  of  the  race. 

Even  if  it  had  not  been  demonstracted  in  a  previous 
chapter,  that  the  assumption,  that  man's  two-footed  brute- 
ancestors  used  clubs  and  missiles  from  the  very  beginning, 
is  utterly  untenable;  that  is  to  say,  if  this  supposition,  for 
the  sake  of  argument,  is  assumed  to  be  true,  that  would  not 
avail  the  brute-woman  in  the  last  stages  of  pregnancy.  For 
the  violent  motions  required,  in  the  effective  defensive  use 
of  these  weapons,  would  be  as  dangerous  to  the  lives  of  the 


54  PSYCHIC   AND  ECONOMIC    RESULTS 

females  and  embryos  as  the  enemies  against  which  they  were 
supposed  to  use  them. 

How  did  the  needful  tendency  to  hide  arise  in  the 
natural  course  of  events?  During  the  last  three  or  four 
weeks  or  months  of  pregnancy,,  the  violent  efforts  required 
from  them  in  contests  with  competitors  and  enemies,  or  in 
attempts  to  escape  from  them  by  flight,  must  daily  have 
become  more  difficult  of  execution,  more  barren  of  success, 
more  productive  of  painful  and  distressing  symptoms  to  the 
females,  until  the  limits  of  endurance  were  reached.  At  this 
point  the  victims,  under  an  overwhelming  sense  of  their 
desperate  helplessness,  would  be  unable  to  prevent  their  nat- 
ural intrepidity  from  giving  way  to  a  supreme  desire  for 
seeking  safety  by  hiding.  For  this  impulse  had  been  increas- 
ing, paripassu,  with  their  helplessness.  A  tendency  to  hide 
during  the  last  stages  of  pregnancy  under  conditions  then 
existing,  obviously  had  great  survival  value.  After  coming 
into  existence,  either  in  the  manner  above  outlined  or  in  any 
other,  it  would,  therefore,  gain  strength  and  fixity  by  nat- 
ural selection.  The  validity  of  the  above  arguments  is  not 
affected  by  any  assumed  brevity  or  length  of  the  female's 
period  of  incapacity,  whether  it  lasted  days,  weeks,  or  months, 
nor  by  the  degree  of  it.  The  unavoidable  admission  of  some 
impairment  of  their  full  vigor,  for  a  brief  or  long  period, 
is  sufficient  to  sustain  them. 

Conditions  similar  to  those  above  alluded  to,  which  made 
the  hiding  habit  of  the  pregnant  females  a  necessity  in  the 
primeval  era  of  the  human  race,  do  not  exist  in  the  case  of 
the  anthropoid  apes.  It  is  true  that  these  creatures  can 
stand  and  move  about  in  an  almost  erect  attitude.  How- 
ever, they  have  not  feet  (distinguished  by  the  hallux  forming 
a  natural  fulcrum  in  walking),  but  hands,  on  their  lower 
or  posterior  extremities;  nor  is  their  foramen  magnum  situ- 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  55 

ated,  as  in  man,,  as  it  must  be  for  convenient  and  natural 
uprightness,  a  little  behind  the  centre  of  the  base  of  the  skull. 
It  is,  therefore,  more  natural  and  far  more  easy  for  them 
to  be,  and  move  about,  on  all  fours.  Their  pregnant  females, 
in  this  latter  attitude,  are  no  more  liable  to  injury  from 
falls  and  stumbles,  and  their  vitals  no  more  exposed,  than 
those  of 'ordinary  quadrupeds  or  baboons.  The  extraordi- 
nary great  capacity  of  the  thoraxic  cavity  of  these  animals, 
and  the  massive  strength  of  the  bony  structures  surround- 
ing it,  and  the  adaptation  of  the  pelvic  bones  and  ligaments 
to  keeping  the  uterus  securely  and  comfortably  in  position, 
give  them  an  advantage  in  the  struggle  for  existence:  to 
which  another  must  be  added,  viz.,  their  long,  strong  arms 
and  limbs,  supplied  at  the  extremities  with  hands,  specially 
adapted  to  grasping  and  holding  on  to  branches,  which  give 
them  chances  of  escape,  only  surpassed  by  flying  creatures. 
And  these  latter  are  at  a  disadvantage  compared  with  them, 
for  it  requires  constant  and  great  effort  to  sustain  themselves 
in  the  air ;  but  apes  and  anthropoids  can  be  at  rest  and  com- 
fortable after  escaping  to  a  place  of  security  in  the  trees, 
and  can  live  and  feed  and  breed  there.  Their  hairiness  and 
tough  hides  protect  them  against  injuries  from  accidents, 
violence,  changes  of  temperature  or  climate,  and  at  the  same 
time  their  color  makes  concealment  easy  for  them,  when  in 
the  foliage  of  their  natural  habitats.  In  no  way  are  there 
any  parallelisms  between  their  condition  and  that  of  the 
dangers  and  disabilities  of  the  child-bearing  human  female. 
To  sum  up  the  argument:  the  perils  and  disadvantages 
resulting  from  the  upright  attitude  would  have  determined 
the  struggle  for  existence  against  the  survival  of  man,  if 
his  superior  intelligence  had  not  initiated  various  modes  of 
conduct,  competent  to  balance,  partly  balance,  or  more  than 
balance,  the  physical  advantages  possessed  by  his  competitors 


56  PSYCHIC  AND  ECONOMIC   RESULTS 

and  enemies.  None  of  these  modes,  however,  although  use- 
ful to  other  members  of  the  race,  could  be  made  available 
for  the  pregnant  females.  There  remained,  to  them,  there- 
fore, but  the  one  saving  resource  of  continued  concealment. 
However,  as  no  kind  of  creature  can  escape  extinction  unless 
its  pregnant  females  are  preserved,  and  since  the  human 
race  has  survived,  therefore,  the  conclusion  is  justified  that 
at  a  very  early  stage  in  the  existence  of  our  race  the  females 
acquired  the  habit  of  concealing  themselves  during  a  part 
of  the  period  of  pregnancy,  and  that  this  was  one  of  the 
means  by  which  the  race  escaped  extinction. 

A  point  has  been  reached  here,  where  a  differentiation 
in  habits  and  activities  on  the  sex  line  may  be  looked  for, 
because  the  males  had  no  occasion  to  practice  self-conceal- 
ment, but  could  continue  active  lives  in  the  open. 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS. 


CHAPTER  V. 

SURVIVAL    VALUE     OF     TEMPORARY     SUPPORT. 

Animals  in  a  state  of  nature  may  usually  find  drinking 
water  in  ample  quantities,  in  fixed  locations,  and  contained 
in  hollows  which  are  self-replenishing.  Creatures  which  have 
found  water  are,  therefore,  but  rarely  compelled  to  go  in 
search  of  new  places  or  supplies,  but  may,  whenever  neces- 
sity or  desire  prompts  them,  provided  they  possess  the  in- 
telligence to  recall  the  whereabouts,  return  to  the  spot  where 
they  first  slaked  their  thirst.  Moreover,  the  act  of  drinking 
is  of  comparatively  brief  duration.  It  is  therefore  not  neces- 
sary for  feeble  or  timid  creatures,  which  are  hunted  by  the 
more  powerful,  to  run  special  risks  in  relieving  their  thirsti- 
ness,  for  during  the  hours  when  their  enemies  are  drinking 
they  can  avoid  the  places  where  water  is  found,  and  resort 
to  them  at  other  times. 

The  case  stands  differently  with  food.  The  competition 
for  this  is  usually  far  more  severe,  and  the  quantities  of  it 
are  not  self-replenishing  with  available  rapidity.  Many 
brutes,  therefore,  are  obliged  to  expend  much  time  and  en- 
ergy, and  to  risk  both  limb  and  life  in  obtaining  and  con- 
suming food.  Brute-man  must  be  included  in  this  class. 
For  he  could  not  feed  on  grass  or  herbage,  as  cattle  do,  nor 
could  he  maintain  a  fruit  diet  with  anything  like  the  ease 
of  monkeys,  squirrels,  or  other  tree-inhabiting  brutes.  For 
his  upright  attitude,  and  feet  unadapt'ed  to  clasping,  grasp- 
ing, or  holding  on,  particularly  unfitted  him  for  tree  life. 

His  teeth,  which  can  neither  be  said  to  be  specially  fitted 


58  PSYCHIC   AND  ECONOMIC   RESULTS 

for  a  particular  diet  nor  extremely  unsuited  to  any  kind, 
possessed  for  these  very  reasons  a  limited  and  yet  valuable 
degree  of  adaptability  to  an  almost  infinite  variety  of  foods, 
more  so  than  those  of  any  other  creature.  That  is  to  say, 
primitive  man  was  better  fitted  than  any  other  animal  for 
what  is  termed  omnivorousness.  Nor  can  it  be  doubted  that 
this  came  about  by  natural  selection.  For  being,  in  the 
struggle"  for  existence,  physically  at  so  enormous  a  disad- 
vantage, if  he  had  been  limited  to  one  or  a  few  articles  of 
food,  his  competitors,  feeding  on  the  same  kinds,  being  so 
much  better  fitted,  would  so  easily  have  gained  the  advant- 
age over  him  as  to  drive  him  out  of  the  field  of  competition, 
and  thus  lead  to  the  extermination  of  the  race. 

Being  able,  however,  to  subsist  on  almost  any  kind  of  diet, 
though  not  nearly  so  well  on  any  particular  kind  as  the 
creatures  which  competed  with  him  for  it,  it  must  soon  have 
become  natural  for  him  to  take  a  little  of  one  description 
here,  and  a  small  quantity  of  another  kind  there,  as  oppor- 
tunity favored,  or  risks  were  minimized.  Intelligence  would 
in  various  ways  assist  effort  in  this  sort  of  conduct.  Withal 
it  is  evident,  however,  from  the  many  disadvantages  under 
which  he  labored,  that  he  had  to  satisfy  his  hunger  usually 
in  the  midst  of  many  dangers,  and  at  the  expense  of  much 
time,  effort,  and  ingenuity.  The  greatest  possible  degree  of 
adaptability  to  the  utmost  variety  of  foods,  and  a  disposition 
to  take  only  a  comparatively  small  quantity  of  any  particular 
kind  at  a  time,  would,  therefore,  be  naturally  selected. 

In  the  last  chapter  it  was  ascertained  that  the  pregnant 
human  females  could  preserve  their  lives  only  by  hiding  and 
remaining  in  concealment  during  the  whole  period  of  their 
incapacity.  The  question  therefore  arises,  how  would  they, 
during  this  time,  obtain  food  and  water?  As  to  water,  the 
%uery  may  be  dismissed,  for  it  has  been  seen  above  that 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  59 

creatures  of  intelligence  could  manage  to  obtain  this  at 
times  when  the  act  was  not  dangerous  to  them,  and  it  is 
thinkable  that  the  pregnant  human  females  would  ascertain 
such  times  and  make  use  of  them  wisely  and  stealthily. 
But  as  to  food,  the  question  remains  unanswered.  With  ref- 
erence to  time,,  it  is  evident  that  they  must  go  in  search 
of  food  during  daylight.  For  their  eyes  were  not  nearly  as 
well  fitted  for  seeing  in  the  dark  as  those  of  their  enemies 
and  competitors,  nor  had  they  an  acute  sense  of  smell  to 
guide  them,  and  their  food  was  hard  to  find  and  scattered. 
Next,  regarding  the  locations  for  finding  food:  these  are 
easily  classified  as  situated  within  their  places  of  conceal- 
ment and  without.  If  without,  then  the  females  would  have 
to  leave  their  asylums,  and,  during  the  long  search  for  food 
and  while  consuming  it,  expose  themselves  to  the  assaults 
of  their  enemies  and  competitors;  therefore,  the  benefits 
of  concealment  would  be  lost,  the  pregnant  females  would 
perish,  and  the  race  could  not  survive. 

If  within,  then  there  are  again  but  two  contingencies. 
Either  the  food  supplies  must  exist  naturally  within  their 
retreats  or  they  must  be  brought  there  artificially.  Let  us 
firstly  consider  the  possibility  of  hiding  in  localities  where 
supplies  of  food  existed  naturally.  Such  places  quickly  be- 
come the  most  frequented  haunts  for  creatures  of  various 
types,  and  therefore  utterly  unfit  for  concealment.  For  this 
very  reason  they  also  become  the  favorite  hunting  grounds 
of  carnivora,  therefore  totally  unsafe  as  abodes  for  the  help- 
less and  incapacitated.  All  other  possibilities  by  which  the 
pregnant  human  females  might  have  obtained  their  food 
being  exhausted,  the  only  possible  conclusion  is  that  it  must 
have  been  brought  artificially  within  their  hiding  places. 
We  need  not  consider  the  alternative  of  food  being  carried 
within  their  asylums  by  the  females  themselves,  for  this 


60  PSYCHIC   AND  ECONOMIC   RESULTS 

could  obviously  not  be  done  unless  they  went  in  search  of 
it  outside  their  retreats,  which  has  been  disposed  of  above. 

If  some  one  says:  The  females  may,  in  anticipation 
of  pregnancy,  have  stored  food  in  places  of  concealment,  then 
the  reply  is,  that  this  either  takes  a  perfected  instinct  for 
granted,  which  is  contrary  to  the  facts,  or  else  assumes  a 
degree  of  systematized  knowledge  and  planning  out  of  the 
question  in  brute-man. 

Having  ascertained  the  utter  futility  of  every  other  alter- 
native, we  are  now  face  to  face  with  this  most  remarkable 
conclusion,  that  the  genus  homo,  when  still  in  its  earlier 
brute  condition,  escaped  extinction  only  because  food  was 
placed  within  the  hiding  places  of  the  pregnant  females  by 
some  artificial  agency  outside  their  own  persons;  that  a  race 
has  survived,  multiplied,  and  become  supreme  master  of  the 
earth,  harnessing  even  the  almighty  forces  of  nature  to  the 
chariot  of  civilization,  which  is  the  offspring  of  a  helpless 
brute  that  could  not  possibly  have  escaped  extermination  if 
it's  hiding  females  had  not,  during  a  portion  of  their  period 
of  pregnancy,  lasting  several  days,  weeks  or  months,  been 
artificially  provided  with  food  within  their  retreats. 

Miracles  are  by  their  nature  excluded  from  any  discus- 
sion which  lays  the  least  claim  to  being  rational.  The  hy- 
pothesis that  some  non-human  brutes  had  regularly,  for 
many  generations,  gathered  food  fit  to  nourish  human  fe- 
males, and  brought  it  to  them  within  their  asylums,  may, 
therefore,  be  unhesitatingly  rejected.  For  it  postulates  a 
marvel  without  precedent,  a  miracle  greater  far  than  any 
the  ingenuity  of  the  theologians  has  ever  invented.  No  liv- 
ing creature,  unless  it  be  a  human  being,  can  reasonably 
be  supposed  to  have  acted  in  a  way  which  calls  for  such  accu- 
rate adjustments  of  means  to  ends,  unless  by  a  perfected 
instinct,  which  would  have  taken  many  thousands  of  genera- 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  61 

tions  to  emerge  by  natural  selection  into  efficiency.  During 
the  period  of  its  inefficiency  the  human  race  would  have 
perished,  and  if  there  had  been  such  an  instinct,  some  traces 
of  it's  former  existence  would  surely  have  been  discovered 
before  this.  Since  neither  has  happened,  the  hypothesis  is 
too  absurd  for  consideration.  It  is,  therefore,  certain  that 
human  beings  must  have  provisioned  the  females  in  their 
retreats,  and  the  questions  arise,  were  they  male  or  female, 
or  sometimes  of  one  and  sometimes  of  the  other  kind  ?  What 
was  the  relation  between  them  and  the  females  they  fed  ? 

When  man  had  learned  the  use  of  clubs,  missiles  and 
fire,  in  other  words,  when  he  had  learned  artificially  to  arm 
and  warm  himself,  his  survival  was  no  longer  in  question, 
but  abundantly  secure.  Higher  intelligence  applied  to  the 
use  of  these  aids,  and  his  wonderful  adaptation  to  handle 
them  skillfully,  secured  him  advantages  far  outweighing  the 
infirmities,  disabilities  and  perils  brought  upon  him  by  his 
physical  uprightness.  Even  a  pregnant  female,  with  fire, 
clubs  and  stones  within  reach,  and  with  vigorous  habits  en- 
gendered by  living  in  the  presence  of  frequent  dangers,  might 
make  some  sort  of  defense  against  some  of  brute-man's  ene- 
mies and  competitors. 

But  the  problems  discussed  in  these  essays,  be  it  dis- 
tinctly remembered,  refer  to  that  long  period  which  com- 
mences with  the  first  appearance  on  earth  of  the  two-footed 
man-brute,  and  which  ends  when  he  began  to  arm  himself 
artificially.  It  has  been  demonstrated  that  gregariousness 
would  have  operated  against  his  survival  during  this  period. 
The  habitual  collection  in  crowds  or  numbers  of  such  help- 
less, vulnerable  creatures,  so  easy  to  kill,  without  risk  to 
their  assailants;  so  easy  to  discover  from  the  distance;  so 
easy  to  eat  without  the  hindrances  interposed  by  woolly, 
furry,  and  hairy  hides;  could  only  have  led  to  wholesale 


62  PSYCHIC   AND  ECONOMIC   RESULTS 

slaughters  by  their  enemies.,  and,  therefore,,  taking  the  slow 
rate  of  reproduction  into  account,  to  the  speedy  extermina- 
tion of  the  race.  These  reasons  justify  the  conclusion  that, 
during  the  epoch  here  discussed,  creatures  of  the  "genus 
homo"  were  found  mostly  wandering  in  search  of  food  or 
hiding  by  ones  and  twos,  and  that  so  many  as  an  adult  male 
and  female,  with  two  or  three  of  their  young,  was  a  rare 
and  risky  gathering. 

Could  the  advantages  have  outweighed  the  risks  of  gre- 
gariousness?  By  no  means.  Unprovided  with  even  the 
smallest  means  of  offence  and  defence,  what  resistance  could 
such  creatures  offer?  Though  assembled  in  great  numbers, 
what  possible  injury  or  pain  could  they  inflict  upon  their 
powerful  enemies,  armed  with  fangs,  tusks,  teeth,  horns, 
poison  glands,  claws,  talons,  etc.,  protected  by  thick  hide, 
shaggy  fur,  scales,  etc.,  etc.,  Evidently  none  worth  men- 
tioning. Even  the  goat,  the  deer  and  the  sheep  have  horns 
and  sharp  incisors  and  progna^eous  jaws,  shaggy  fur,  and 
thick  hides.  The  little  peccary  has  vicious  teeth  in  its  pro- 
truding jaws.  With  these  it  can  bite  and  tear  and  do  this 
in  places  about  the  feet  and  legs,  which  a  taller  antagonist 
finds  it  hard  to  protect.  The  backs  and  heads  of  these  little 
creatures,  which  are  the  only  parts  of  their  bodies  exposed 
to  an  antagonist,  are  protected  by  the  skull,  vertebrae  and 
ribs,  and  by  stiff,  prickly  bristles.  What  a  contrast  from  the 
man-brute's  tall,  bare-skinned  body,  fully  exposing  his  vitals 
to  his  enemy. 

The  only  possible  use  that  such  creatures  could  get  out 
of  gregariousness  lay  in  this,  that  one  might  watch  while 
the  others  rested  or  sought  food.  But,  compared  with  the 
added  risk  of  wholesale  slaughter,  this  was  small  gain  to  a 
creature  unable  to  feed  on  grass  or  herbage.  The  greater 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  63 

safety  was  in  remaining  scattered,  for  the  enemies  of  man 
reproduced  far  more  rapidly  than  he. 

Gregariousness  did  not  begin  to  have  survival  value  for 
man  until  he  had  learned  to  arm  himself  artificially. 

Consideration  of  answers  to  the  questions  asked  above 
may  now  be  resumed.  To  perform  the  actions  under  dis- 
cussion, a  human  being  or  human  beings,  must  feel  some 
sympathetic  interest  in  the  dangers  and  sufferings  of  the 
females.1  Now  what  sort  of  human  beings  would  answer  to 
these  requirements?  and  in  what  relation  would  they  stand 
to  the  pregnant  females  ?  Would  adult  females,  standing 
in  the  relation  of  friendship  answer?  Friendship  can  only 
arise  in  the  associated  (social)  state,  among  creatures  hav- 
ing at  least  occasional  brief  periods  of  peace  and  leisure 
to  give  opportunities  for  the  amenities  and  joys,  the  experi- 
ences of  similarity  or  complementariness  of  tastes,  activities, 
etc.,  in  which  the  sentiment  of  friendship  has  its  roots.  It 
seems,  therefore,  self-evident  that  such  a  thing  as  a  long- 
enduring,  steadfast,  self-sacrificing  friendship,  without  an 
instinctive  basis,  was  utterly  impossible  to  the  scattered  few 
of  the  race  under  the  conditions  then  prevailing,  which  re- 
quired the  utmost  efforts  from  even  competent  members,  to 
barely  maintain  existence;  and  this  reasoning  discriminates 
with  equal  validity  against  either  male  or  female  friendships. 


1.  It  is  exceedingly  improbable  that  the  males  had  any  notion 
of  the  reproductive  results  of  cohabitation  until  long  after  permanent 
sex  unions  had  become  quite  common.  Nothing  in  the  act  of  repro- 
ducing suggests  the  result  to  either  sex.  Even  the  female  has  no 
coherent  chain  of  feelings  to  teach  this  mysterious  connection;  and 
from  the  consciousness  of  the  male  the  knowledge  is  still  more 
remote. 

The  reader  must  be  warned  against  assuming  that  the  connec- 
tion between  the  gratification  of  the  attraction  between  the  sexes 
and  the  birth  of  offspring,  as  now  generally  understood  by  adult 
civilized  human  beings,  was  known  or  even  suspected  until  long 
after  permanent  unions  had  become  very  common  in  human  societies. 


64  PSYCHIC   AND  ECONOMIC   RESULTS 

There  remains,,  then,  but  one  kind  of  human  being,  and 
but  one  relation  which  answers  these  requirements — a  rela- 
tion, among  sexually  reproducing  creatures,  as  old  as  life 
itself,  as  strong  as  the  intensest  of  all  instincts,  the  deepest 
of  all  passions,  abundantly  capable  of  drawing  and  holding 
two  human  beings  of  opposite  sex  together — an  instinct  which 
unites  them  during  that  period  of  their  lives  when  their 
bodies  come  nearest  to  physical  perfection — which,  although 
by  nature  only  fitted  to  enforce  compliance  with  racial  need 
of  reproduction,  has  yet  in  man  acquired  the  power  of  ele- 
vating his  intellectual  faculties  to  their  highest  possibilities, 
*f  evoking  and  maintaining  in  him  the  heroic  atttiude  of 
mind,  of  arousing  sublime  and  beautiful  emotions,  of  initiat- 
ing bold  aesthetic  and  artistic  conceptions  and  the  most  benefi- 
cent and  admirable  aims. 

When  this  powerful  instinct  in  those  primitive  times  had 
drawn  a  male  and  female  together,  there  did  not  then,  as 
now,  exist  legal,  conventional  or  educational  influences  to 
mitigate  or  modify  the  force  of  the  natural  attraction,  nor 
was  there  any  dissimilarity  in  tastes,  necessities,  occupa- 
tions or  modes  of  life  to  cause  them  to  leave  each  other's 
company  in  the  intervals  between  the  periodic  stimulations 
of  the  instinct.  In  other  words,  there  was  an  active,  pow- 
erful force  continually  drawing  them  together  and  nothing 
to  draw  them  apart. 

Neither  was  it  likely,  when  an  attraction  had  been  once 
established  between  two  of  opposite  sex,  that  the  affection  of 
either  would  become  alienated  through  the  intervention  of 
a  more  favored  specimen  of  the  other  sex.  For  the  num- 
ber of  living  individuals  of  the  race  was  very  small,  and  for 
these  few  it  had  survival  value  to  remain  scattered  by  ones 
and  twos,  or  at  most  in  small  family  groups.  It  is,  therefore, 
a  safe  conclusion  that  after  two  of  opposite  sex  had  been 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSic^ci^g^jg^^^sr  65 

companions  they  would  remain  so  unless  the  exigencies  of 
pregnancy  parted  them.  Until  that  time,  that  is,  during 
many  days,  weeks  or  months,  they  would  hunt  together,  bat- 
tle against  common  enemies,  seek  food,  eat,  drink,  sleep 
and  rest  together.  In  this  way,  and  during  this  long  time 
of  companionship,  they  would  become  more  and  more  ac- 
customed to  each  other's  natures  and  habits,  until  little  by 
little,  through  progressing  pregnancy,  the  first  feeble  symp- 
toms of  approaching  incapacity  would  begin  to  show  in  the 
actions  of  the  female.  A  little  less  efficiency  and  agility  in 
taking  her  share  in  the  contests  with  enemies,  a  little  less 
ease  in  holding  her  own  in  flight  from  enemies  or  in  the 
pursuit  of  prey.  This  would  gradually  and  almost  imper- 
ceptibly force  the  male,  without  comprehending  the  mysteri- 
ous cause  which  produced  the  changes  in  his  consort's  actions, 
to  do  a  little  more  and  a  little  harder  fighting  than  before, 
and,  for  a  little  distance,  to  follow  the  prey  alone  when  the 
female  had  fallen  behind;  to  carry  a  little  larger  share  of 
the  food  captured  or  collected  to  the  common  resting  place,  etc. 

Thus,  as,  by  slow  degrees,  her  share  in  life-sustaining 
actions  diminished,  his  would  increase,  and  yet  her  portion 
in  the  results  would  not  be  less.  This  process  would  continue 
until  she  would  be  unable  to  give  assistance  to  her  mate  in 
any  violent  encounters.  Even  before  this,  however,  efforts 
to  keep  up  her  part  in  the  fight  and  in  the  chase  would  make 
her  liable  to  suffer  pain  from  over-exertion  for  hours  or  even 
days.  These  tendencies  would  culminate  in  her  being  finally 
forced  to  remain  in  concealment  while  he  would  go  forth 
alone  in  search  of  food  and  prey,  portions  of  which  he  would 
be  likely  to  bring  to  the  place  of  her  concealment',  because 
the  habit  had  been  established  during  the  long  months  of 
companionship.  (See  Appendix,  Note  2,  "On  Altruism.") 

So  very  gradually  had  his  share  in  the  efforts  increased 


66  PSYCHIC    AND   ECONOMIC    RESULTS 

without  diminishing  her  participation  in  the  food,  that  after 
she  remained  behind  in  concealment  the  surrender  to  her 
of  a  portion,  sufficient  for  her  support,  would  hardly  be  per- 
ceived by  him  as  a  change.  In  no  other  way  is  it  natural, 
in  no  other  would  it  be  rationally  thinkable,  that  food  could 
have  been  provided  for  the  pregnant  females  in  concealment. 
It  was  brought  to  them  by  their  male  consort's.  Since  only 
in  this  manner  could  it  come  to  pass:  since  the  survival  of 
the  race  depended  on  its  occurrence,  and  since  the  race  has 
survived,  therefore,  the  conclusion  is  warranted  that  it  hap- 
pened in  this  way. 

Such  conduct  is  not  confined  to  the  human  race,  but  has 
been  observed  among  baboons  and  anthropoid  apes;  and 
male  birds  have  been  known  to  bring  food  to  their  mates 
during  the  period  of  incubation.  Nor  need  one  search  far 
for  the  cause  of  this  habit.  Evidently  it  had  survival  value, 
especially  in  the  case  of  man.  For,  in  the  struggle  for  exist- 
ence, the  tendency  would  be  to  preserve  and  multiply  fami- 
lies in  which  the  males  had  a  disposition  favorable  to  this 
trait,  and,  on  the  contrary,  to  eliminate  those  in  which  they 
had  not.  Natural  selection,  therefore,  accounts  for  the  fact 
that  this  habit  has  now  become  well  nigh  universal  in  the 
race. 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  67 


CHAPTEK  VI. 

SURVIVAL  VALUE  OF  PERMANENT  SUPPORT. 

i 

Parental  wealth  tends  to  lengthen  the  helpless  infancy 
of  offspring,  and  parental  poverty  to  shorten  it.  For  motion 
is  always  in  the  line  of  least  resistance.  When  wealthy  par- 
ents continue  to  provide  for  their  offspring,  long  after  the 
natural  necessity  for  it  has  ceased,  the  infancy  of  the  chil- 
dren lengthens  by  relaxation  of  the  efforts  which  otherwise 
would  be  made  by  the  young  creatures.  Contrariwise,  when 
savage  or  poor  parents  lack  resources,  and  are,  therefore, 
obliged,  in  the  search  for  them,  to  abandon  their  children 
before  they  are  able  to  take  care  of  themselves,  under  the 
operation  of  the  same  law,  the  helplessness  of  infancy  is 
shortened  by  the  putting  forth  of  earlier  efforts. 

Thus  far  has  the  progress  of  civilization  in  large  measure 
been  characterized  by  progressively  greater  concentrations  of 
wealth  in  the  possession  of  certain  classes.  It  is,  therefore, 
reasonable  to  assume  that  among  these  classes,  at  least,  the 
duration  of  helpless  infancy  has  been  lengthening  ever  since 
the  beginning  of  civilization. 

Here  is  not  the  place  to  discuss  the  question  whether 
"the  growth  of  human  intelligence"  has  also  contributed  to 
lengthening  helpless  infancy  in  the  human  species,  as  con- 
tended by  John  Fiske.  Whether  it  has  or  not,  this  is  cer- 
tain, that  from  the  very  first  appearance  of  brute-man  on 
earth,  helpless  infancy  must  have  endured  in  this  race  longer 
than  in  any  other.  This  follows  as  an  unavoidable  conclu- 
sion from  physical  uprightness,  which  involves  a  very  com- 


68  PSYCHIC  AND  ECONOMIC   RESULTS 

plex  and  delicate  coordination  and  cooperation  of  many 
widely  differentiated  structures,  bones,  tendons,  muscles, 
nerves,  etc.  It  is,  therefore,  possible  only  after  all  these 
various  parts  have  been  developed,  by  exercise,  into  a  con- 
siderable degree  of  precision  and  efficiency  in  their  adjust- 
ments. 

The  arrangements  subserving  locomotion  in  most  other 
animals  are  comparatively  simple.  Very  little  strength  and 
precision,  and  but  a  small  degree  of  coordination  of  four 
very  similar,  if  not  almost  equivalent  movements,  is  re- 
quired to  enable  young  quadrupeds  to  balance  their  bodies 
and  move  about.  But  in  man,  muscles  about  the  back,  chest, 
abdomen,  neck  and  head,  and  in  the  toes,  feet,  limbs,  hips 
and  arms,  must  accurately  cooperate  in  balancing  the  body 
for  standing  or  moving  about  in  the  erect  attitude.  And 
because  of  this  degree  of  complexity,  this  variety  of  cooper- 
ating organs  and  coordinated  muscular  contractions,  a  higher 
degree  of  precision  in  functioning  is  necessary  in  the  human 
race,  which  can  be  attained  only  by  allowing  a  longer  period 
for  development,  that  is  to  say,  a  longer  infancy.  And  this 
reasoning  and  this  conclusion  applies  to  the  "genus  homo" 
from  the  time  of  its  first  appearance  on  earth,  for  the  up- 
right attitude  has  distinguished  it  since  then. 

During  the  lengthy  period  of  their  helpless  infancy  the 
human  offspring  had  to  be  nourished,  cared  for,  and  pro- 
tected by  their  parents,  or  perish.  The  survival  of  the  race 
depended  upon  the  disposition  of  the  parents,  or  of  at  least 
one  of  them,  to  assume  for  a  lon^  period  the  burthen  of 
providing  the  little  ones  with  nourishment  and  protection. 
Whether  the  burthen  was  assumed  by  one  or  by  the  other, 
or  by  both,  its  assumption  must  have  proved  to  be  a  very 
serious  hindrance  in  the  struggle  for  existence,  to  whichever 
accepted  it.  The  survival  of  the  race  makes  us  certain  that 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  69 

on  the  average  the  parent's  of  the  race  have  not  shirked  their 
duty  in  this  matter.  Because  of  the  naturally  closer  con- 
nection of  the  mother  with  the  child,  and  of  the  feeding  of 
it  for  a  longer  period  by  a  natural  secretion  from  her  body, 
it  is  safe  to  assume  that  this  burthen  of  feeding,  caring  for 
and  protecting  the  child  after  the  flow  of  milk  had  ceased 
or  become  inadequate  for  the  nourishment  of  the  rapidly 
growing  offspring,  fell  upon  the  mothers  of  the  race.  The 
former  process  would  gradually,  unavoidably,  blend  into  the 
latter.  But  how  could  the  mother  provide  for  her  own  main- 
tenance and  that  of  her  child,  care  for  it,  protect  and  carry 
it  in  arms,  and  yet  enter  into  the  struggle  for  existence 
with  any  chance  of  success?  And  on  her  success  depended 
the  survival  of  the  race!  A  female  quadruped,  a  few  days 
after  delivery,  may  go  in  search  of  food  unhindered  by  the 
offspring  trotting  at  her  heels.  If  enemies  appear,  the  mother 
faces  them,  and  the  little  ones  keep  at  a  safe  distance  or 
go  into  temporary  hiding  until  the  battle  is  over.  Even  if 
a  young  one  is  occasionally  captured  by  an  enemy,  or  dis- 
appears, the  loss  is  not  important  to  the  race,  for  large  litters 
are  frequently  reproduced. 

But  in  the  human  race,  one  child,  once  a  year,  during 
a  few  years,  comes  very  near  being  the  limit  of  reproduc- 
tive capacity,  and  this  one,  during  the  long  period  of  its 
helpless  infancy,  has  to  be  carried  in  arms  by  the  mother 
whenever  she  goes  in  search  of  aliment,  or  it  must  be  left 
behind  unprotected  and  unprovided.  Evidently,  then,  the 
survival  chances  of  mother  and  offspring  are  not  much,  if 
any,  better,  after  the  birth  of  the  laiter,  than  they  would 
have  been  shortly  before,  had  not  the  male  consort  then 
come  to  the  relief  of  the  sorely  troubled  female.  And  in 
this  case  now  under  discussion,  the  same  sort  of  relief  must 
have  come  from  the  same  source. 


70  PSYCHIC   AND   ECONOMIC    RESULTS 

Such  a  proceeding  had  very  decided  survival  value,  and 
any  families  in  which  the  male  consorts  showed  a  disposi- 
tion to  provide  food  and  protection  for  their  mates  and  off- 
spring must  have  been  selected  for  preservation,  while  those 
which  were  lacking  in  it  were  left  to  die  out'.  Nor  could 
natural  selection  neglect  the  extent  or  quality  of  this  dis- 
position. For  if  the  males  of  certain  families  had  a  dispo- 
sition and  capacity  to  provide  well  and  liberally  and  for  a 
longer  period,  then  the  females  and  offspring  had  a  chance 
to  grow  stronger,  healthier,  and  better  fitted  for  the  struggle 
for  existence,  and  those  families,  therefore,  had  the  best 
chance  of  survival. 

Nor  does  the  matter  end  even  here.  For  it  can  hardly 
be  doubted  that,  in  that  epoch,  the  unrestrained  reproduc- 
tive instinct  and  the  necessities  of  the  race  admitted  of  but 
short  intervals,  for  the  competent  among  the  females,  be- 
tween the  end  of  the  helpless  infancy  of  one  child  and  preg- 
nancy with  the  next;  so  that  natural  selection  would  sift 
out  only  those  families  for  preservation  in  which  the  males 
were  naturally  disposed  to  provide  for  their  females  and 
offspring,  as  long  as  the  reproductive  period  of  the  female, 
and  the  helplessness  of  any  of  the  offspring  lasted. 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  71 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  FAMILY,  MONOGAMIC   MARRIAGE,  ECONOMIC  DEPENDENCE 
OF    WOMAN,    THE    HOME. 

The  existence  of  four  peculiar  institutions,,  unique  in 
the  human  race:  the  family,  monogamic  marriage,  the  eco- 
nomic dependence  of  woman,  and  the  home,  have  been  ac- 
counted for  in  the  preceding  chapters. 

All  four  were  traced  to  the  earliest  period  of  man's 
existence,  and  to  physical  uprightness,  through  the  survival 
of  the-  fittest,  as  a  cause. 

A  vast  amount  of  evidence,  drawn  from  the  reports  of 
travelers  who  have  lived  for  many  years  in  barbarous  or 
semi-savage  communities,  in  order  to  study  their  customs, 
beliefs,  and  traditions,  has  been  adduced  by  some  writers  in 
support  of  the  contention  that  the  tribal  commune  and  the 
clan  ante-date  the  family. 

How  can  such  a  view  be  reconciled  with  the  apparently 
conclusive  evidence  furnished  in  preceding  chapters,  that 
family  relations  closely  resembling  those  of  the  present  day, 
prevailed  during  the  very  dawn  of  human  existence  on  earth  ? 
Only  on  the  hypothesis  (and  it  is  legitimate  to  answer  one 
hypothesis  with  another)  that  the  modern  type  of  family  is< 
a  form  of  atavism,  developed  within  the  tribe  or  clan,  after 
these  social  aggregates  had  supplanted  the  primitive  family, 
by  being  of  higher  survival  value.  How  could  this  come 
to  pass? 

When  the  use  of  clubs  and  missiles  had  developed  the 
predatory  type  of  men,  who  preyed  upon  their  own  race, 


72  PSYCHIC   AND  ECONOMIC    RESULTS 

the  existence  of  family  groups,  each,  consisting  of  a  helpless 
woman  and  her  children,  from  which  the  able-bodied  male 
had  to  absent  himself  to  go  in  search  of  food,  became  exceed- 
ingly precarious  and  liable  to  be  wiped  out  suddenly  or 
scattered. 

The  members  of  numerous  family  groups,  which  in  time 
of  peace  had  spread  over  considerable  territory,  in  escaping 
from  their  predatory  fellow  men,  by  running  away  in  many 
different  directions,  would  tend  to  meet,  in  large  numbers, 
at  the  natural  intersections  of  their  various  lines  of  flight, 
and  communes,  tribes  and  clans  might,  under  favorable  con- 
ditions, arise  out  of  these  gatherings. 

After  tribes  and  clans  had  existed  for  many  generations, 
and  had  gradually  attained  a  high  degree  of  organization 
and  of  internal  security,  then  governmental,  conventional, 
and  ethical  ideas  may  have  resuscitated  family  groups,  prac- 
tically "de  novo."  For  even  the  memory  of  their  primitive 
existence  may  have  been  obliterated. 

There  should  be  noted,  however,  a  fundamental  differ- 
ence which  exists  between  the  attractions  which  hold  the 
family  united,  and  the  external  coercive  influence  which 
bring  and  keep  the  members  of  tribes  or  clans  together. 
These  latter  may  be  likened  to  compression. 

Love,  affection  and  mutual  interdependence  are  the  in- 
trinsic factors  which,  through  desire,  voluntarily  unite  the 
members  of  a  family  group;  by  attractions  akin  to  those 
which  draw  the  ultimate  particles  of  a  substance  to  each 
other.  But  as  a  driving  wind  in  winter  will  gather  the 
individually  beautiful  snow  crystals  in  shapeless  heaps  or 
drifts,  so  it  required  the  coercive  force  of  common  danger 
to  induce  primitive  human  beings  to  exchange  the  natural 
freedom  of  individual  and  family  life  for  the  restraints  of 
the  tribe  or  clan. 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  73 

Can  it  be  asserted  that  the  existence  of  tribe  or  clan 
absolutely  ante-dated  the  earliest  primitive  human  families? 
Not  without  denying  the  upright  stature  of  the  human  race 
and  its  unavoidable  consequences.  For  human  individuals 
were  the  only  material  from  which  the  tribe  or  clan  could 
be  formed.  These  individuals  could  not  be  anything  else 
than  the  offspring  of  human  parents  of  upright  stature. 
During  the  long  helpless  infancy  of  such  offspring,  they  and 
their  mothers  had  to  be  supported  by  the  father  or  perish. 
Support  of  mother  and  offspring,  by  the  father,  during  a 
lengthy  period,  constitutes  genuine  family  relations.  There- 
fore, can  the  absolute  priority  of  the  tribe  or  clan  not  be 
asserted,  without  implying  a  denial  of  the  existence  of  phys- 
ical uprightness  in  man,  which  is  absurd  and  contrary  to 
the  hypothesis. 

That  beautiful  relation  between  two  people  of  opposite 
sex,  known  as  monogamic  marriage,  has,  heretofore,  usually 
been  looked  upon  as  one  of  the  latest  results  of  governmental, 
religious,  and  conventional  regulations,  enforced  only  within 
the  highest  types  of  civilized  societies.  From  the  preceding 
chapter,  however,  a  very  different  view  of  the  subject  seems 
rational,  namely,  that  this  form  of  sex  relation  is  the  neces- 
sary result  of  permanent  support  by  the  male,  and  scantiness 
of  population,  which  prevailed  during  the  earliest  periods 
of  brute-man's  existence. 

During  subsequent  eras  of  warfare,  the  level  of  the  adult 
male  population  may  sometimes  have  fallen  so  very  low  that 
polygamy  was  the  only  remedy  which  could  save  the  race 
or  the  tribe  from  extinction.  It  is  possible  that  such  epochs 
occasionally  lasted  for  so  many  generations  that  the  former 
existence  of  monogamic  marriage  was  only  remembered,  if 
at  all,  as  a  tradition,  or  a  reminiscence  from  a  former  golden 
age.  This  ideal,  in  subsequent  periods  of  peace,  may  then 


74  PSYCHIC   AND  ECONOMIC    RESULTS 

have  been  resuscitated  and  reinforced  by  governmental,  re- 
ligious,, and  conventional  regulations,,  and  this  would  account 
for  its  present  existence.1 

The  original  economic  dependence  of  woman,  mentioned 
in  the  last  chapter,  began  only  when  the  infirmities  of  the 
final  stages  of  pregnancy  had  made  it  impossible  for  her  to 
obtain  her  own  food  supplies  and  defend  herself  against  ene- 
mies. It,  therefore,  could  not  possibly  influence  her  in  her 
choice  of  a  consort,  which  necessarily  had  to  occur  long 
before  that  time. 

The  kinds  of  economic  dependence  which  have  existed 
since  historic  times  are  of  a  very  different  nature.  While 
indirectly  traceable,  like  every  other  peculiarly  human  insti- 
tution, to  man's  physical  uprightness,  "marriage  by  capture, 
feudalism  and  man-made  laws"  must  be  assigned  as  directly 
responsible  for  their  existence.  By  taking  from  woman  her 
natural  right  of  free  choice,  in  matters  sexual,  and  conferring 
this  power  exclusively  upon  man,  this  sort  of  economic  de- 
pendence has  brought  many  evil  consequences  upon  the  race, 
detailed  mention  of  which  is  inappropriate  in  an  essay  of 
this  kind.  Yet  it  cannot  be  doubted  that,  for  a  long  time 
to  come,  many  men  and  women  will  continue  to  join  in 
marriage,  mainly  prompted  by  the  desire  of  making  a  com- 
fortable home  and  raising  a  family  of  children.  And  to 
accomplish  this  creditably,  requires  the  whole  time  and  en- 
ergy of  the  mother,  during  the  greater  portion  of  her  mature 
life.  The  earning  of  the  living  for  the  family  during  this 
period,  naturally  and  equitably  falls  upon  the  father,  becomes 
his  special  function.  And  division  of  labor  has  its  advant- 


1.  It  seems  strange  that  the  obvious  fact  that  family  relations 
and  monogamic  marriage  have  existed  in  the  human  race  ever  since 
its  advent,  should  be  called  in  question,  seeing  that  they  are  found 
among  the  anthropoid  apes. 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  75 

ages  in  this  department  of  life,  as  well  as  in  others.  But, 
under  such  circumstances,  love  and  community  of  interests 
are  the  basis  of  the  arrangement,  and  evil  consequences,  if 
any  exist,  are  obviously  minimized.  The  father's  knowledge 
of  his  economic  power  must  give  way  to  his  sense  of  obliga- 
tion, and  the  mother's  sense  of  dependence  can  hardly  be 
any  greater  than  that  existing  between  equal  business  partners, 
under  normal  arrangements.  The  force  of  economic  condi- 
tions, however,  seems  to  be  already  tending  towards  a  readjust- 
ment of  existing  sexual  relations.  For  the  increasing  com- 
plexity of  socio-economic  conditions,  and  more  still  the  con- 
centration of  economic  power  in  the  hands  of  the  few;  the 
increasing  demands  of  an  ever  more  complex  order  of  society ; 
the  increasing  facilities  for  satisfying  the  demands  of  the 
reproductive  instinct  in  an  illegitimate  way;  the  rapid  decay 
of  all  reliance  upon  the  supposed  supernatural  sanction  for 
marital  unions — all  these  causes  cooperate  to  produce  an 
ever  increasing  number  of  bachelors  and  spinsters  and  to 
lessen  the  opportunities  for  attractive  marital  relations.  As 
the  number  of  unmarried  women  increases,  more  and  more 
of  them  are  forced  into  industrial,  self-supporting  occupa- 
tions, and  the  demand  for  increased  opportunities  of  this  kind 
will  rapidly  become  more  urgent,  and  is  bound  to  make  itself 
heard.^  Even  animals  of  comparatively  low  organization  and 
intelligence  resort  to  nidincation  during  the  mating  season. 
But  the  love  of  home  in  the  human  race  is  more  deeply 
rooted.  It  springs  from  the  very  structure  of  man's  organism. 
For  this  structure  made  the  hiding  habit  of  the  females,  and 
the  support  of  mother  and  offspring  by  the  male,  absolute 
necessities  on  which  the  survival  of  the  race  depended.  And 
these  two  habits  made  a  permanent  and  secure  abiding  place 
for  the  family  as  unavoidably  necessary  for  the  survival  of 
the  race,  as  those  habits  themselves  were. 


76  PSYCHIC   AND   ECONOMIC   RESULTS 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

COMPLEMENTARINESS    OF    SEXES    ON    LINES    NOT    RELATED    TO 
REPRODUCTION. 

On  comparing  the  males  and  females  of  any  of  the 
higher  mammalian  genera,  except  man,  with  each  other,  there 
is  discovered  a  broad  sameness  in  the  structures  and  func- 
tions not  related  to  reproduction,  and  an  equal  fitness  of  both 
sexes  for  the  various  activities  demanded  by  the  average  race 
life.  This  fitness  is  but  slightly  impaired  for  the  females, 
during  a  very  brief  period,  just  before  and  after  giving  birth 
to  the  young. 

In  the  human  race,  however,  physical  uprightness  has 
produced  a  very  different  state  of  affairs.  By  enforcing, 
during  periods  of  varying  length,  a  separation  of  the  sexes, 
it  has  initiated  in  them  a  divergence  of  habits  and  activities 
in  opposite  directions.  For,  seeking  food  to  support  them- 
selves, their  females  and  young,  the  men  could  not  remain 
in  the  security  of  the  places  where  the  former  were  con- 
cealed, but  had  to  come  forth  into  the  open  to  meet  the  hard- 
ships and  dangers  of  the  struggle  for  existence,  by  fierce 
self-seeking  activities,  including  the  battling  with  powerful 
and  ferocious  competitors  and  enemies.  This  demanded  agil- 
ity, audacity,  ferocity;  the  determination  to  possess  and  con- 
quer, no  matter  at  what  cost  of  blood,  or  pains  to  self  or 
others,  and  heartless  disregard  for  the  sufferings  of  others, 
that  is  to  say:  destructive,  disruptive,  cruel  egoism. 

Upon  the  females  in  concealment  devolved  the  propa- 
gation of  the  race,  To  succeed  in  this  they  had,  firstly:  to 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  77 

guard  the  secrecy  of  their  places  of  concealment.  A  timid, 
cunning  disposition  was  suited  to  this.  Secondly:  to  pre- 
serve the  lives  of  their  young.  This  required  patience,  ten- 
derness, sympathy,  conservative  constructive  self-surrender. 

It  is  obvious,  from  the  above,  that  the  set  of  qualities 
required  by  the  females  is  the  antithesis  of  that  required  by 
the  males.  One  set  can  exist  in  an  individual,  only  by  the 
exclusion  of  the  other.  The  growth,  increase,  or  develop- 
ment of  one  set  in  a  person,  therefore,  implies  the  decrease 
or  decay  of  the  other.  Since  both  sets  of  sex  traits  favor  the 
survival  of  the  race,  therefore,  was  their  ever  greater  devel- 
opment fostered  by  natural  selection.  In  other  words,  the 
ever  farther  differentiation  of  the  sexes  in  opposite  directions 
had  a  vast  survival  value. 

The  complete  race  life  requires  both  sets,  and  since,  in 
these  latter  days,  this  differentiation  is  almost  universal  in 
mankind,  and  the  partial  possession  of  both  sets  of  qualities 
by  one  individual  is  of  very  rare  occurrence,  therefore,  must 
many  individuals,  of  both  sexes,  be  necessarily  but  imperfectly 
fitted  for  the  full  race  life,  if  in  this  present  age  they  are  with- 
out the  comradeship  of  a  person  of  the  other  sex  and  the  con- 
sciousness of  this  imperfection  seems  unavoidable,  though 
evidenced  only  by  general  unrest  and  dissatisfaction. 

This  sensitiveness  of  each  sex  to  its  own  imperfections  is 
necessarily  associated  with  perception  of  the  proficiency  of 
the  other  in  these  wished-for  qualities.  That  is  to  say,  there 
exists  in  each  sex  a  sense  of  its  own  incompleteness,  associated 
with  a  belief  that  the  qualities  which  are  lacking  can  be  found 
in  the  other. 

Therefore,  must  an  individual  of  one  sex,  on  the  average, 
become  attractive  to  the  other,  nearly  in  the  same  degree 
as  he  or  she  possesses  the  special  sex  qualities  of  his  or  her 
own  sex.  In  other  words,  a  man  will  be  attractive  to  women 


78  PSYCHIC   AND  ECONOMIC   RESULTS 

proportionate  to  his  manliness,  and  a  woman  attractive  to 
men  in  proportion  to  her  womanliness.  In  this  way  has 
sexual  selection  aided  natural  selection  to  increase  and  accen- 
tuate sex  traits  in  the  human  race,  widening  the  difference 
between  the  sexes. 

.Now  observe  that  these  special  sex  qualities,  although, 
in  the  unending  chain  of  cause  and  effect,  the  remote  results 
of  reproductive  activities,  were  yet,  from  the  very  beginning, 
separate  and  independent  of  the  instinct,  and  of  the  attrac- 
tion originated  by  it.  Note  further,  that  from  generation  to 
generation,  under  the  influence  of  natural  selection*  and  sexual 
selection,  aided  by  the  process  which  Herbert  Spencer  calls 
"Multiplication  of  Effects,"  this  differentiation  of  the  sexes 
has  reached  wider  and  wider  fields  of  human  interest,  in  the 
realms  of  actions,  thoughts,  and  feelings,  until  in  this  age 
there  seems  to  remain  hardly  a  thing,  the  reactions  of  which 
on  men,  do  not  more  or  less  differ  from  its  reactions  on 
women,  and  which  is  not  by  the  reactions  received  from  man, 
differently  affected  than  by  those  which  reach  it  from  woman. 

To  illustrate :  Let  a  manly  man  and  a  womanly  woman 
look  at  the  same  great  work  of  art,  or  the  same  grand  scene 
in  nature;  they  will  be  attracted  by  different  features  of  it, 
and  will  have  aroused  within  them  different  thoughts  and 
emotions,  different  motives  for  differing  actions.  Let  them 
read  the  same  poem  or  other  literary  production,  and  the 
results  will  differ  similarly.  Equally  so,  if  both  have  the 
same  problems  in  politics,  economics,  religion,  ethics,  business, 
or  daily  conduct  presented  for  decision. 

And  in  every  such  case  the  angle  of  divergence  between 
the  persons  of  different  sex  will  be  the  same  as  that  indi- 
cated by  that  first  separation  of  the  sexes,  when  the  male 
confined  himself  to  the  struggle  for  existence,  and  the  female 
to  the  propagation  of  the  race.  Mark  now  the  truism :  that 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  79 

the  range  of  activities  of  the  human  body  and  mind,  and  the 
joys  of  doing,  thinking,  feeling,  are  deepened,  pah  passu, 
with  increase  in  the  perceptions  of  more  details  in  the  phe- 
nomena that  affect  us,  and  with  multiplication  of  the  sub- 
jective activities  they  provoke. 

Since,  by  reason  of  the  differentiation  here  under  con- 
sideration the  female  perceives,  in  nearly  all  phenomena  pre- 
sented, some  details  which  the- male  does  not,  and,  therefore, 
acts,  thinks,  feels,  in  some  respects  as  the  male  does  not,  and 
vice  versa,  therefore,  can  each  by  itself  act,  think,  feel,  only 
incompletely  with  reference  to  the  wonderful  variety  of  things 
in  this  universe,  which  are  more,  if  notx  doubly  more,  com- 
pletely available  to  the  dual  human  molecule — man  and 
woman  united  in  close,  intimate  comradeship.  So  that  the 
single  life  can  never  be  commensurate  with  the  magnificent 
and  beautiful  possibilities  of  human  action,  thought,  and 
feeling;  can  never  rise  to  the  full  dignity  of  the  human 
destiny;  but  must  unavoidably  fall  short  of  it. 

The  complete  life,  the  highest  of  which  we  are  capable 
in  usefulness,  in  beauty  and  in  joy,  can  only  be  reached  in 
the  joint  life,  close  intimacy,  and  comradeship  of  two  of 
opposite  sex. 


80  PSYCHIC   AND  ECONOMIC   RESULTS 


CHAPTER  IX. 

CONCERNING   THE   ORIGIN   OF   WARFARE  AND   THE  DIVISION   OF 
MANKIND   INTO    CLASSES   AND   MASSES. 

Individual  character  may  be  defined  as  the  principles 
from  which  the  uniformities  in  a  creature's  conduct  or  ac- 
tions arise.  These  principles  are  determined  by  the  intrinsic 
nature  of  the  creature,  but  the  actions  derive  their  specific 
quality  from  the  functional  adaptation  of  the  external  organs. 
And  the  external  organs  are  visible.  Therefore,  can  the 
character  of  an  animal  be  ordinarily  known  by  its  external 
appearance.1 


1.  Mimicry  in  nature,  which  misleads  animals  by  external  ap- 
pearances with  reference  to  the  character  of  creatures,  depends  for 
its  survival  value  on  the  validity  of  this  rule.  To  illustrate:  A  cer- 
tain harmless  fly  escapes  from  enemies  by  looking  in  color  and  form 
like  a  dangerous,  stinging  wasp,  and  another  by  looking  like  a 
leaf,  etc. 

The  character  of  the  fly  remains  harmless,  after  variation 
has  changed  it  in  appearance  to  a  stinging  wasp.  If,  after- 
wards, the  enemies  of  this  fly  disappear,  because  afraid  to  feed 
on  this  dangerous  looking  wasp-like  thing,  then  the  wasp-like  ap- 
pearance of  this  kind  of  fly  tends  also  to  disappear,  in  the  course 
of  a  few  generations,  by  a  process,  which  may  be  explained  as  fol- 
lows: When  most  of  the  flies  of  this  species  were  being  born  look- 
ing harmless,  then  there  appeared  here  and  there  by  variation  an 
isolated  specimen,  looking  like  a  wasp.  The  harmless  looking  kind 
would  be  eaten  by  enemies  before  reaching  the  reproductive  age, 
but  the  wasp-like  would  escape  and  reproduce.  In  the  next  genera- 
tion, therefore,  the  number  of  the  harmless  looking  would  be  dimin- 
ished; that  of  the  wasp-like  increased.  In  the  course  of  a  few 
generations  the  harmless  looking  kind  would  be  so  scarce  as  to 
seriously  affect  the  food  supply  of  their  enemies,  which  would  either 
have  to  depart  from  that  locality  or  die  from  starvation.  In 
either  case,  the  harmless  looking  variety  would  begin  to  increase  in 
numbers,  from  generation  to  generation,  until  their  enemies  would 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  81 

For  example:  The  long,  sharp  claws,  great  protruding 
jaws,  long  dirk-like  incisors  of  the  lion,  his  powerful  muscles 
and  frame,  the  shaggy  mane  protecting  his  front — these  ap- 
pearances indicate  what  kind  of  conduct  may  be  expected  from 
such  a  creature.  The  long,  slender  legs,  graceful  body,  and 
large  eyes,  do  the  same  for  the  character  of  the  deer.  The  long 
and  mobile  ears,  low  body,  muscular  haunches,  show  the 
character  of  the  rabbit  or  hare;  and  so  on,  almost  through 
the  whole  range  of  animal  life. 

It  could  not  be  otherwise,  for  if  those  outward  organs, 
on  which  creatures  depend  for  their  reactions  with  the  ex- 
ternal world,  did  not  correspond  with  their  character,  on 
which  the  nature  of  these  reactions  depends,  then  such  ani- 
mals could  not  adapt  themselves  to  their  environment  long 
enough  to  live  to  maturity.  Such  types  would  die  out  in 
remarkably  short  time. 

To  apply  this  rule  safely  to  man  requires  great  care 
in  distinguishing  between  his  artificial  and  natural  appear- 
ance. For  civilized  people  have  become  so  thoroughly  used 
to  the  extreme  artificialities  of  the  conventional  kinds  of 
toilets  and  dress2  that  they  are  involuntarily  more  impressed 

be  attracted  by  the  ample  food  supply  and  the  reverse  of  the  process 
would  begin,  and  so  on. 

It  is  note-worthy  that  when  one  type  begins  to  diminish,  it  be- 
comes harder  for  both  sexes  of  that  kind  to  find  mates  of  their  own 
variety  and  that  this  difficulty  increases  the  rapidity  with  which 
the  other  type  tends  to  predominate. 

Would  careful  consideration  of  the  process  above  described  not 
justify  distinguishing  the  harmless  looking  flies  as  "the  ordinary 
hereditary,"  or  "true"  race  type  ?  And  the  wasp-like,  as  the  ex- 
ceptional "false"  type,  which  owes  its  existence  to  natural  selection 
when  the  race  is  crowded  by  its  enemies  and  will  tend  to  disappear 
whenever  these  enemies  of  the  race  are  overcome?  This  law  of  na- 
ture should  be  kept  in  mind  by  the  reader,  for,  although,  the  con- 
ditions in  the  human  race  are  far  more  complex,  yet  the  law  applies. 

2.  The  word  "toilet"  is  used  here  to  signify  artificial  changes 
in  the  appearance  of  hair,  head,  face,  etc.,  to  distinguish  these  from 
dres*,  which  appertains  to  coverings  for  the  body. 


82  PSYCHIC   AND  ECONOMIC   RESULTS 

by  alternations  or  deficiencies  in  these  than  by  slight  physio- 
logical variations.  Just  think  how  the  absence  of  a  necktie 
from  a  gentleman's  attire,  or  of  shoes  and  stockings  from 
a  lady's  feet,  would  startle  the  average  conventional  person! 

The  bodies  of  civilized  persons  are  usually  concealed 
by  artificial  coverings,  and  the  head  and  face  are  transformed 
by  the  toilet  and  the  labors  of  the  barber  and  hair  dresser. 
However,  these  trifles  contributed  by  tailor,  barber  and  their 
like,  can  not  indicate  the  manly  characteristics  in  the  nature 
of  a  person — rather  would  punctilious  care  bestowed  on  them 
be  significant  of  absence  of  these. 

Artificiality  in  externals  is  not  confined,  however,  to 
contemporaneous  civilized  people.  It  has  been  practiced  ever 
since  history  began  by  nearly  all  those  who  could  afford 
it,  and  even  savages  and  barbarians  disfigure  the  natural 
beauty  and  dignity  of  the  human  body  by  various  familiar 
devices. 

Greek  statuary  and  the  comparatively  naked  bodies  of 
the  natives  of  Africa,  and  of  the  coolies  of  India,  come  near- 
est to  showing  the  natural  appearance  of  man. 

And  what  sort  of  race  character  does  this  imply?  viz., 
the  utter  absence  of  means  of  offence,  defence,  protection 
and  escape;  the  exceptional  vulnerability;  the  liability  to 
numerous  injuries  and  perils,  from  which  all  other  creatures 
are  free;  the  exceptionally  high  elevation  and  mobility  of  the 
head,  where  the  senses  of  sight,  hearing,  smell  and  taste 
are  located ;  the  complexity  of  the  organism  suggesting  a  wide 
range  of  possible  compound,  concerted  motions,  and  the  ele- 
vation above  ground  of  the  hands  implying  a  refined  sense 
of  touch? 

To  brutes  this  appearance  would  suggest  extreme  inof- 
fensiveness.  To  the  mind  of  man,  if  not  prepossessed,  it 
indicates  extreme  adaptability,  fitness  for  wide  and  varied 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  83 

observations,  with  exceptionally  high  qualifications  for  intel- 
lectually comparing,  compounding  and  enjoying  this  great 
variety  of  experiences,  this  beauty  and  grandeur  in  the  world, 
and  for  applying  these  experiences  to  ever  fuller  understand- 
ing and  to  finer  adaptations  of  conduct  to  environment. 

Peaceful  disposition;  docility;  the  bodily  capacity  to 
do  many  different  things;  the  intellectual  ability  to  appre- 
hend great  possibilities,  and  to  entertain  great  far-off  pur- 
poses during  lengthy  periods  and  to  direct  efforts  in  the  line 
of  their  attainment — such  are  the  characteristics  implied  by 
the  visible  appearance  of  the  natural  human  body. 

A  combination  wonderfully  well  adapted  to  the  highest 
forms ,  of  productive,  not  to  say  creative,  cooperation :  add 
to  thafe  the  habit  of  individual  industry  which  is  comparable 
to  atomic  forces,  the  effect  of  which,  though  insignificant 
when  exercised  by  one  atom  alone,  becomes  irresistible  when 
a  common  impulse  causes  great  numbers  to  co-operate;  and 
we  have  a  potential  agency  by  which  the  eternal,  infinite, 
relentless  forces  of  the  universe  and  the  resources  of  nature 
may  be  brought  into  the  service  of  sentient  life;  and  this 
earth,  transformed  from  being  a  place  of  hopeless  toil  and 
misery  for  millions,  into  a  real  home  for  the  entire  human 
race,  to  the  maintenance  of  which  in  peace,  plenty  and  hap- 
piness for  all,  each  could  contribute  his  best  voluntary  ef- 
forts, and  in  return  receive  an  equitable  share  in  the  gen- 
eral wealth  produced  by  all. 

This  is  the  sublime  destiny  humanity  can  attain.  How 
is  it  that  it  has  so  sadly  fallen  short  of  it? 

For  this  there  are  several  reasons,  the  first  being  that, 
as  explained  in  Chapter  VflJ  only  among  the  females  could 
the  character  above  delineated  survive  during  the  long  ages 
before  men  had  learned  to  arm  themselves  artificially,  while 
they  were  still  crowded  by  their  powerful  brute  enemies  and 


84  PSYCHIC  AND  ECONOMIC   RESULTS 

competitors.  During  this  period  natural  selection  eliminated 
from  among  the  males  those  which  arose  from  generation  to 
generation  endowed  with  these  beneficent  characteristics,  and 
only  the  fiercely  combative,  imbued  with  destructive  egoism, 
survived.  Among  these,  however,  in  accordance  with  well- 
known  tendencies  of  sexual  reproduction,  a  small  number 
must  have  sporadically  appeared,  endowed  with  a  combina- 
tion of  the  characters  of  both  sexes.  This  was  the  heroic 
type  of  man.3 

Possessed  of  immense  muscular  power,  great  agility, 
indomitable  courage,  fierce  combativeness,  great  cunning,  reck- 
less disregard  of  wounds  and  of  the  danger  of  meeting  death, 
and  equal  indifference  for  the  blandishments  of  glory  or 
reward:  endowed  with  deep  and  sensitive  sympathy  for  the 
feeble  and  helpless  of  his  own  race — this  type  was  preemi- 
nently fitted  for  the  severest  tests  of  bravery,  skill  and  en- 
durance. Such  heroism,  however,  was  evidently  only  avail- 
able for  defensive  warfare  against  the  brute  enemies  of  man- 
kind. Aggressive  warfare  directed  against  the  feeble  and 
defenseless  of  our  own  race,  instigated  by  greed  or  lust  of 
power  or  riches,  was  obviously  impossible  with  such  men. 
Such  characters  would  prove  a  help,  and  could  never  be  a 
hindrance,  to  the  attainment  of  humanity's  sublime  destiny. 
But  there  were  others,  possessing  the  same  fierce  combative- 
ness,  without  the  safeguards  supplied  by  sympathy. 

When  these  two  types  of  men  began  to  arm  themselves 


3.  The  reader  must  be. warned  against  the  error  of  inferring 
from  the  above,  that  the  personnel  of  humanity  as  it  exists  today,  or 
as  it  has  existed  in  the  past,  is  divisible  into  two  sharply  contrasted 
types,  one  exclusively  displaying  the  true  race  character  and  the 
other  the  robber  type. 

Occasionally  individuals  oeour,  exclusively  displaying  the  traits 
of  either  one  or  the  other  of  those  types,  but  the  great  majority 
combine  some  of  the  traits  of  both  types  in  their  personalities,  and 
of  these  it  can  only  be  said,  that  the  traits  of  either  the  one  or  the 
other  type  predominate  in  their  characters. 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  85 

artificially  with  sticks  and  stones,  what  a  wonderful  trans- 
formation this  brought  about!  What  a  contrast  between 
the  helpless,  miserable  two-footed  upright  brute  and  the 
hero  armed  with  club  and  stones !  Such  a  type  of  men,  sup- 
plied with  these  artificial  weapons,  for  which  their  organism 
had  such  wonderful  natural  adaptation,  was  easily  a  match 
for  the  fiercest  and  most  powerful  among  their  brute  ene- 
mies and  competitors.4 

With  the  acquisition  of  ever  better  skill  in  the  use  of 
clubs  and  missiles,  and  with  improvements  made  from  time 
to  time  in  their  form  and  quality,  there  came  an  end  to  the 
perils  and  disabilities  which  had  kept  the  race  close  to  the 
verge  of  extermination.  Security  had  come  at  last,  and 
with  it  increase  in  numbers.  Matriarchal  and  Patriarchal 
groups  were  in  process  of  formation.  Natural  selection,  in 
so  far  as  it  arises  from  struggles  with  brute  enemies  and 
competitors — and  that  is  the  whole  of  it  in  the  ordinary  ac- 
ceptation of  the  phrase — no  longer  eliminated  the  patient, 
the  gentle,  nor  those  fitted  for  constructive  self -surrender 
among  the  men.  Some  of  this  latter  class  probably  began 
about  this  time  to  engage  in  industry,  by  the  shaping  of 
crude  tools,  arrows,  stone  axes,  etc. 

The  domestication  of  animals,  the  beginnings  of  efforts 
at  the  cultivation  of  the  soil  and  of  the  accumulation  of  small 
stores  of  fruits,  nuts,  and  other  necessaries  of  existence 
beyond  immediate  wants,  are  usually  placed  by  anthropolo- 
gists in  these  periods.  The  decisive  battles  with  brute  ene- 
mies had  been  fought  and  won.  That  chapter  in  the  history 


4.  It  seems  likely  that  the  myths  and  traditions  of  the  heroic 
age,  of  which  more  or  less  voluminous  traces  are  found  in  the  earliest 
records  of  every  nation,  have  more  truth  in  them  than  is  generally 
believed,  and  that  they  have  been  derived  from  the  tales,  transmitted 
from  generation  to  generation,  of  memorable  deeds  of  valor  really 
performed  by  the  most  brave,  cunning,  and  physically  largest  and 
strongest  among  our  earliest  stick  and  stone  using  ancestors. 


86  PSYCHIC   AND  ECONOMIC   RESULTS 

of  the  race  was  closed.  Man  was  supreme  master  on  earth. 
Henceforth,  if  anything,  except  some  great  convulsion  of 
nature,  was  to  threaten  the  existence  or  hinder  the  progress 
of  the  race  in  the  direction  of  its  sublime  destiny,  then  it 
could  not  come  from  without,  but  had  to  arise  within  the  race. 
The  fearful  devastations  produced  by  man's  life-destroy- 
ing ability  and  ingenuity  were  briefly  illustrated  in  an  earlier 
chapter.  When,  by  the  activity  of  these  traits,  the  complete 
subjugation  of  man's  brute  enemies  and  competitors  had 
been  accomplished,  then  the  opportunities  for  the  exercise 
of  these  traits  had  also  been  thereby  greatly  reduced.  These 
faculties,  however,  remained  potentially  in  full  force,  and 
in  accordance  with  a  well  established  psychological  law,  they 
craved  action  all  the  more  because  of  the  recent  strenuous 
activity. 

The  great  lesson  of  science  and  morality  had  not  yet 
been  learned,  that  the  energy  and  ingenuity  formerly  dis- 
sipated in  these  destructive  actions,  if  devoted  to  voluntary 
co-operation  in  productive  industry  and  exchange,  would  ac- 
complish stupendous  improvements  in  the  happiness  of  the 
persons  thus  engaged,  and  in  the  general  progress  of  all 
humanity  towards  its  sublime  destiny.  Nor  is  this  self-evi- 
dent truth  even  today  appreciated  by  more  than  a  small 
minority  of  persons. 

It  follows  then,  that  only  opportunity  or  temptation 
were  lacking  to  turn  these  fearful  agencies  of  suffering  and 
destruction  against  the  feeble  and  defenseless  in  the  human 
race. 

Both  the  opportunity  and  the  temptation  came  quickly 
enough.  For  action  is  always  in  the  line  of  least  resistance 
or  greatest  attraction.  It  has  been  mentioned  in  an  earlier 
paragraph  of  this  chapter,  that  about  this  time  some  of  the 
"hominidae"  began  to  gather  small  accumulations  of  the 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  87 

necessaries  of  existence,  in  or  near  their  family  retreats,  for 
future  use.  These  little  supplies  furnished  temptation  and 
opportunity.  Nothing  is  more  attractive  or  tempting  to 
animals  than  ready-made  supplies  of  the  necessaries  of  ex- 
istence, or  objects  of  desire.  The  possible  supplies,  out  of 
sight,  and  hard  to  find,  and  to  be  gathered  only  as  the  result 
of  laborious,  persistent,  risky  efforts,  can  not  be  nearly  as 
attractive  or  tempting  to  them  as  ready-made  accumulations 
within  sight.  Here,  then,  was  opportunity,  temptation,  and 
the  line  of  greatest  attraction. 

It  was  not  in  the  least  difficult  or  dangerous  for  arti- 
ficially armed,  fiercely  combative  men  to  overcome  the  re- 
sistance of  the  helpless  females  and  young,  who  were  some- 
times, and  in  some  places,  left,  during  all  the  day,  as  sole 
defenders  of  these  accumulations.  So  this  was  also  the  line 
of  least  resistance. 

At  first  such  attacks  were  probably  few  and  rare.  For 
the  very  fact  of  the  existence  of  small  accumulations  relieved 
some  of  the  men  from  the  necessity  of  going  daily  in  search 
of  food,  and  by  the  premises  in  this  argument,  man's  pow- 
erful brute  enemies  were  sufficiently  subdued  at  that  period, 
so  that  there  was  no  need  of  going  daily  in  pursuit  of  them. 

The  males  inclined  to  these  depredations,  however,  would 
not  venture  on  them  on  days  when  the  other  men  were  with 
their  families.  Only  isolated  cases  would  occur,  when  rov- 
ing males,  finding  that  the  protecting  men  had  gone  away 
from  retreats  in  which  accumulations  existed,  would  dare 
to  make  raids  on  them.  This  was  the  line  of  greatest  temp- 
tation, attraction  and  least  resistance.  They  would  make 
attempts  to  enter  the  retreats  to  possess  themselves  of  thf 
supplies.  The  females  and  young  would  make  determined 
but  inefficient  resistance,  and  would  be  easily  overcome  in  a 
contest  with  strength  and  ferocity,  during  the  progress  of 


88  PSYCHIC  AND  ECONOMIC   RESULTS 

which  some  of  them  may  have  been  killed  and  others  wounded. 

It  must  be  left  to  the  imagination  of  the  reader,  what, 
if  any,  scenes  of  terror  and  rapine  followed  the  success  of 
such  raids,  during  the  long  day,  before  the  men,  the  right- 
ful owners  of  these  supplies,  returned  to  their  plundered  re- 
treats, and  wiiether  the  ingenuity  of  these  predatory  males 
had  made  sufficient  progress,  in  that  early  period,  to  support 
the  supposition  that  the  more  determined  of  the  resisting 
females  and  young  were  bound  and  gagged  with  long  strands 
furnished  by  trailing  or  creeping  plants,  or  with  stringy  ma- 
terials derived  from  the  bodies  of  animals  that  had  been 
killed. 

The  probability  is  that,  late  in  the  day,  possibly  after 
dark,  and  loaded  with  the  spoils  of  the  hunt,  the  men  belong- 
ing to  the  plundered  habitations  would  return,  and  that 
then,  provided  the  robber  males  had  remained  there,  the  real 
battle  began. 

To  sum  up  the  argument :  For  many  hundred  genera- 
tions, a  cruelly  combative  character  had  been  naturally  se- 
lected among  men.  For  several  generations  at  least  there 
had  been,  in  the  work  of  subjugating  man's  powerful  brute 
enemies,  active  occupation  for  this  disposition.  This  very 
activity,  however,  had  gradually  minimized  the  opportuni- 
ties for  its  exercise  in  that  line,  and  thus  produced  and  en- 
forced an  inactivity  of  these  faculties  and  powers,  formerly 
so  active.  Such  a  condition  was  decidedly  irksome  and  hard 
to  bear  for  the  combative  type  of  men. 

Then,  with  all  the  force  implied  by  least  resistance  and 
greatest  attraction,  came  the  opportunity  and  temptation  for 
exercising  these  traits  within  the  race.  Is  this  not  ample 
and  sufficient  proof  that  they  were  used  in  this  way  ?  Namely : 
that  many  of  the  artificially  armed  men,  about  this  time,  be- 
gan to  make  attacks  on  the  accumulated  stores  deposited 


OP  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  89 

within  the  retreats  of  the  helpless  females  and  young,  with 
the  result  stated  above. 

It  is  admitted  here  that  some  unimportant  portions  of 
the  last  arguments  were  unavoidably  of  a  speculative  nature, 
and  that  nothing  more  than  greatest  probability  and  con- 
formity to  the  rule  of  parsimony  can  be  affirmed  in  support- 
ing them.  This,  however,  is  sufficient  to  throw  the  burthen 
of  proof  on  those  who  deny  their  truth.  Since  this  line  of 
thought  is  full  of  valuable  suggestions  and  extremely  inter- 
esting, it  seems  permissible,  in  this  closing  chapter,  to  pur- 
sue it  a  little  further. 

Deeds  of  justice,  altruism,  or  beneficence,  naturally  at- 
tract but  little  attention.  They  are  done  under  the  influence 
of  those  complex  mental  states  which  are  found  only  among 
the  morally  developed.  They  seek  seclusion,  not  notoriety 
nor  distinction.  These  latter  are  the  desire  of  low,  selfish, 
vain  natures.  Justice  and  beneficence  choose  privacy  for 
their  activity.  Their  purpose  is  for  others,  whose  feeling-, 
would  be  wounded  by  display.  Only  false  pretenders  to  deeds 
of  justice  or  beneficence  choose  publicity  or  display:  Be- 
sides, display  diverts  and  distracts  from  the  concentration 
of  purpose  and  delicacy  of  touch  involved  in  deeds  of  gentle- 
ness, justice,  beneficence.  Furthermore,  since  sympathy  de- 
pends on  similarity  of  nature,  only  the  just,  beneficent,  and 
altruistic  by  nature  can  be  influenced  by  perceiving  deeds 
of  this  kind.  And  since  motion  is  always  in  the  line  of  least 
resistance  or  greatest  attraction,  therefore,  do  deeds  of  this 
kind  attract  but  little  attention,  and  lead  still  less  to  imi- 
tation or  repetition  by  others. 

But  it  is  otherwise  with  selfish,  sordid,  cruel  acts.  Their 
example,  like  fire  in  the  dry  herbage  of  a  prairie,  when  the 
wind  blows,  spreads  with  fearful  velocity  and  force.  For 
every  creature  has  selfishness  as  a  primary  instinct.  There- 


90  PSYCHIC   AND  ECONOMIC   RESULTS 

fore,  if  a  cruel,  selfish,  unjust  act  is  but  successful,  then  the 
evil  example  appeals  to  the  lowest  nature  of  every  one.  Here 
is  the  successful  attainment  of  some  object  of  greed  or  pas- 
sion, by  the  easiest  and  most  direct  means,  and  this  attracts 
every  low  nature,  and  whatsover  there  is  low  even  in  a  high 
nature.  This  is  the  line  of  greatest  attraction  and  least 
resistance. 

Therefore,  it  can  safely  be  taken  for  granted  that  the 
example  and  success  of  the  first  few  of  these  robber  raids, 
above  mentioned,  led  to  the  rapid  extension  and  multiplica- 
tion of  such  enterprises,  until  they  became  well  nigh  uni- 
versal and  continuous  within  the  area  inhabited  by  man. 
Even  some  of  the  men  whose  retreats  had  been  plundered, 
being  deprived  of  home  and  loved  ones,  might,  in  the  bitter- 
ness and  despair  of  their  feelings,  drift  into  following  a 
predatory  life. 

When  introracial  warfare  had  thus  become  general,  all 
human  beings,  except  the  predatory  men  themselves,  suffered 
from  the  prevailing  state  of  insecurity.  Only  the  few  ma- 
triarchal and  patriarchal  groups,  which  existed  in  that  period, 
may  have  been  able  to  offer  successful  resistance  to  these 
raids.  But  as  has  been  shown  in  earlier  chapters  the  far 
larger  number  of  human  beings  of  that  time  lived  in  isolated 
families.  The  females  and  young  of  these,  if  they  escaped 
slaughter  and  captivity,  were  driven  from  their  retreats  and 
dispersed. 

Terror-struck  and  running  away  from  their  enemies,  with- 
out knowing  whither,  crowds  of  these  fugitives  coming  from 
many  different  directions  would  tend  to  meet  at  the  cross- 
ing points  of  their  various  lines  of  flight.  And  at  these  they 
may  sometimes  have  been  reenforced  by  some  of  their  own 
men  searching  for  them,  or  retreating  from  their  despoiled 
homes.  The  coming  together  of  large  numbers  of  fugitives 


91 

who  all  suffered  the  same  kind  of  injuries  from  the  same 
enemies  would  naturally  move  them  to  make  common  cause, 
and  large  numbers  would  give  them  a  sense  of  power,  and 
move  them  to  united  action  against  their  enemies.  In  this 
way  the  origin  of  promiscuous  groups  and  hordes  is  accounted 
for,  and  these  may  afterwards  have  developed  into  clans  and 
tribes.  To  be  effective,  all  these  aggregates  required  leaders, 
and  the  fiercest,  most  energetic  and  cunning  would  naturally 
become  head  men.  The  internal  peace  of  the  human  race 
had  been  broken.  After  that  it  consisted  of  hostile  groups. 
Each  group  hated  every  other.  Anthropologists  teach  that 
to  belong  to  another  group  was  punished  with  death  on 
sight,  and  that  tribe  marks  were  cut  or  pricked  into  the 
skin  of  the  forehead,  or  some  other  prominent  part  of  the 
body,  so.  that  fellow  tribesmen  might  know  each  other  as 
such  and  not  engage  in  mortal  combat,  when  they  met  by 
accident. 

The  stronger  and  more  energetic  of  the  groups  made  war 
upon  the  weaker,  to  rob,  subjugate,  or  destroy  them.  Nor 
was  there  peace  between  the  members  of  a  group.  They  were 
divided  into  factions  by  jealousy,  ambition,  and  greed.  Fear 
of  external  enemies  and  of  their  own  leaders  was  all  that 
held  these  groups  together.  Comparative  security  from  out- 
side enemies  they  secured,  but  at  the  expense  of  the  most 
precious  of  man's  possessions,  viz.,  personal  liberty.  Co- 
operation was  no  longer  voluntary,  nor  for  mutually  benefi- 
cent aims.  Thereafter  it  was  forced,  and  devoted  to  war- 
fare. Fear  of  external  enemies,  dread  of  the  leaders,  and 
desire  for  their  favor  and  protection,  led  by  easy  steps  to  the 
subjugation  of  the  many  to  the  will  of  the  few.  Thereafter 
there  were  rulers  and  ruled.  The  ruled,  if  but  permitted 
to  retain  their  lives,  would  willingly  give  service  and  obe- 
dience to  the  rulers. 


2  PSYCHIC   AND  ECONOMIC   RESULTS 

Henceforth  tribal  and  clan  existence  had  survival  value, 
in  proportion  to  the  progress  made  by  the  many  towards  im* 
plicit  submission  to  the  will  of  the  leaders  and  their  usual 
ring  of  favorites.  Large  tribes  and  clans  with  able  headmen 
might  enjoy  a  degree  of  comparative  internal  security.  During 
such  times  productive  industry  and  division  of  labor  had  a 
chance  to  begin. 

But  from  that  time  until  this  day  the  robber-type  ha*» 
retained  control  of  political,  economic  and  conventional  af- 
fairs and  humanity  has  never  succeeded  in  ridding  itself  of 
the  division  into  the  ruling,  exploiting,  luxuriously  living, 
non-producing  classes  and  the  ruled,  exploited,  poorly  living, 
producing  masses. 

To  account  properly  for  this  fact,  the  argument  would 
Have  to  be  carried  so  very  far  beyond  the  limits  of  the  epoch 
here  discussed,  that  a  merely  general  mention  of  some  of  the 
more  important  factors  in  the  problem  must  suffice. 

Productive  activities  and  progressiveness  in  economic 
methods  require  the  true  human  race  characteristics  (see  note 
1  to  this  chapter),  viz.,  sympathetic  amiability,  docility,  in- 
dustry, intellectual  capacity,  inventive  ingenuity.  To  rule 
others,  demands  the  robber-type  of  false  race  character,  viz., 
self-seeking,  unsympathetic,  remorseless  egoism. 

Warfare  since  time  immemorial  has  been  nearly 
ubiquitous  and  perennial  within  the  territory  populated  by 
man.  The  comparatively  few  and  brief  intermissions  of 
peace,  have  usually  been  confined  to  periods  during  which  ag- 
gressive communities  were  slowly  recovering  from  the  ex- 
haustion produced  by  previous  conquests,  or  during  which 
conquered  people  were  gathering  strengtli  to  struggle  for 
freedom. 

The  " artificial  state  of  society,"  which  has  existed  for 
many  ages  and  still  prevails,  has  been  gradually  but  persist- 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  93 

ently  built  up  during  thousands  of  years,  along  lines  favorable 
to  the  supremacy  of  the  classes  and  their  maintenance  by  the 
sacrifice  of  the  masses. 

The  consolidations  of  clans  and  tribes  into  nations  and 
of  nations  into  empires  has  been  accomplished  by  wholesale 
assassinations,  through  armies,  navies,  etc. 

Political  repression  of  the  masses  of  advanced  nations 
has  been  carried  on  by  legislation  and  judicial  administration 
in  the  interest  of  the  classes. 

By  unequal  and  indirect  taxation,  by  tariffs,  private 
monopolies  of  vital  necessities  and  natural  resources,  etc., 
economic  pressure  has  been  brought  to  bear  on  the  masses. 

Pulpit,  platform,  press,  school,  conventional  regulations, 
etc.,  have  been  some  of  the  instruments  by  which  the  ruling 
classes  have  molded  opinions,  beliefs  and  moral  standards 
into  conformity  with  their  interest's. 

The  ingenuity,  which,  among  producers  has  led  to  in- 
ventions, discoveries,  progress  in  art,  science,  mechanics,  etc., 
in  the  ruling  classes  has  tended  to  ultra-refined  modes  of  de- 
ception, treachery,  cruelty,  etc. 

Greed,  hypocrisy,  self-indulgence  have  been  cultivated 
into  great  efficiency. 

Special  codes  of  ethics  to  guide  the  conduct  of  rulers  to- 
wards the  ruled,  have  been  ingeniously  elaborated  to  justify 
the  practice  of  fiendish  tortures,  basest  treachery,  etc.,  includ- 
ing among  others,  similarly  atrocious,  maxims  like  these: 

"That  when  the  people  become  restive  under  oppression 
and  the  authority  of  the  rulers  seems  in  jeopardy,  they  may 
make  promises  and  the  most  sacred  pledges  to  the  people,  with 
the  deliberate  purpose  of  breaking  them  as  soon  as  the  danger 
is  past." 

"That  it  is  virtuous  and  honorable  to  deceive  rebels  by 
any  means,  no  matter  how  heinous." 


94  PSYCHIC   AND  ECONOMIC   RESULTS 

That  "no  considerations  of  humanity  or  pity  are  ap- 
plicable to  rebels." 

And  rebels  are  "people  who  resent  or  resist  the  rule  of  the 
rulers." 

Whether  this  resentment  or  resistance  has  arisen  from  the 
unbearable  despotism  and  wickedness  of  the  rulers,  or  from 
the  outraged  higher  sense  of  justice,  duty  or  honor  of  the  re- 
bellious persons  makes  no  difference  in  the  operation  of  these 
maxims. 

By  these  means  and  others,  it  has  been  brought  about, 
that  the  utilization  of  the  forces  and  resources  of  nature, 
made  possible  by  the  ever  greater  and  swifter  progress  of 
human  genius  and  industry,  has  up  to  date,  served  almost 
exclusively  to  increase  the  wealth  and  power  of  the  ruling 
few  and  the  helplessness  and  misery  of  the  many.  Thus  man- 
kind remains  divided  into  classes  and  masses. 

And  the  masses  by  hundreds  of  generations  of  subjection 
have  acquired  a  habit  of  submitting  without  murmur  or  resist- 
ance. They  have  been  falsely  taught  that  this  is  the  law  of 
nature  and  religion,  that :  "The  poor  ye  have  always  with  you" 
— that  it  is  right  for  them  and  their  religious  and  moral  duty 
to  submit  cheerfully.  And  popular  judgment,  therefore,  con- 
demns those  who  in  righteous  indignation  object,  protest  or 
resist. 

For  this  reason  the  occasions  are  now  rare  when  the 
ruling  classes  resort  to  wholesale  slaughter  to  impress  the 
masses,  with  the  wisdom  of  submission  and  the  futility  of 
resistance. 

But  when,  as  in  Russia,  centuries  of  atrocity,  have  driven 
millions  of  the  masses  into  courting  death  in  an  almost  hope- 
less struggle,  rather  than  live  under  the  established  rule ; — or 
when  diamond  fields  and  gold  mines  have  excited  the  extreme 
cupidity  of  the  robber-type,  as  in  South  Africa,  and  if  the 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  95 

resources  of  hypocrisy  and  betrayal,  in  the  subtilty  of  which 
the  classes  so  greatly  excel  the  masses,  fail  to  secure  submis- 
sion,, then  the  wholesale  slaughter  of  the  innocents  begins. 
And  even  historians  and  poets  are  found,  which  are  not  above 
degrading  their  noble  callings,  by  paeans  of  glorification,  to 
the  hireling,  false  pretense  heroes,  engaged  in  such  inglorious 
assassinations. 

It  is  not  intended  by  the  above  to  imply  that  the 
robber-type  of  men  is  confined  to  the  ruling  classes.  Hav- 
ing been  naturally  selected  during  many  generations,  by  its 
own  evil  influence  on  social,  political  and  economic  environ- 
ment, it  is  but  too  much  in  evidence  among  the  masses. 

Nor  should  the  last  paragraph  but  one  be  interpreted  as 
singling  out  the  English  people,  nor  even  the  British  govern- 
ment, for  condemnation.  For  the  English  people  has  fre- 
quently been  the  champion  of  liberty.  Nor  can  it  be  justly 
asserted  that  the  British  government,  even  when  in  the  hands 
of  Tories  or  Conservatives,  is  more  brutally  aggressive  against 
weaker  people,  taking  opportunities  into  consideration,  than 
the  other  great  powers  are.  The  example  of  the  Boer  War 
was  selected  as  an  illustration,  because  it  is  fresher  than  other 
such  incidents  in  the  memory  of  contemporaries. 

If  any  adequately  informed  readers  doubt  whether  the 
phrase  "artificial  state  of  society"  used  in  the  twentieth 
paragraph  above,  correctly  designates  the  system  under  which 
humanity  exists  in  this  age,  then  it  is  only  necessary  to  re- 
mind them,  that  healthy  organization,  natural  order,  like 
growth,  proceeds  from  the  attractions  existing  within  that 
which  grows,  that  which  is  being  organized,  that  which  is  at- 
taining a  higher  form  of  order ;  it  never  results  from  external 
pressure.  Mere  increase  of  mass,  with  or  without  closer  con- 
tact, when  produced  by  external  pressure,  can  never  lead  to 
healthy  growth,  to  natural  order ;  it  remains  always  artificial, 


96  PSYCHIC   AND  ECONOMIC   RESULTS 

forced.  This  applies,  a  fortiori,  to  organic  matter,  and  su- 
premely to  human  beings.  Our  present  order  of  society, 
being  the  result  of  force  and  being  held  together  by  force, 
is,  therefore,  artificial. 

Only  when  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth  shall  be  habitu- 
ally under  moral  self-control,  but  free  from  human  coercive 
interference;  when  a  long  reign  of  justice  shall  have  pro- 
duced an  era  of  implicit  confidence;  when  sympathy  shall 
have  led  to  national  and  international  application  of  the 
principle  of  voluntary  co-operation  in  matters  of  production, 
distribution  and  administration — only  then  shall  we  have  a 
natural  order  of  society,  and  an  approach  toward  our  sub- 
lime destiny. 

Although  these  conclusions  and  those  reached  in  earlier 
chapters,  obviously  have  deep  and  vital  bearings  on  the  prob- 
lems in  ethics  and  public  policy,  which  in  our  present  age 
are  so  urgently  pressing  for  solution,  yet  ought  these  rela- 
tions not  to  be  considered  in  this  place,  because  they  appertain 
to  departements  of  knowledge  and  periods  in  time  clearly  out- 
side the  field  here  discussed. 

The  true  nature  of  some  of  the  evils  from  which  society 
suffers  and  their  cause  has  been  traced.  It  remains  for  hu- 
man genius  and  heroism  to  find  the  remedies  and  bring  them 
into  action. 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  97 


APPENDIX  NOTE  I. 

ON    MEMORY. 

We  become  aware  of  memory  when  fainter  repetitions 
of  former  experiences  arise  in  the  mind,  seemingly  discon- 
nected from  the  causes  which  primarily  produced  them. 
For  instance,  suppose  the  sounds  of  a  church  bell  are  heard 
ringing  on  a  summer  evening,  in  a  meadow  surrounded  by 
hills.  The  sensations  of  sounds  heard,  of  sights  seen,  of  soft 
breezes  fanning  the  cheeks,  of  fragrance  in  the  nostrils,  are 
directly  connected  with  the  causes  which  then  and  there 
produce  them.  After  some  days  suppose  a  witness  of  this 
scene  wishes  to  describe  it  to  an  evening  party  of 
friends.  Faintly,  the  sensations  arise  again  in  his  mind, 
seemingly  disconnected  from  the  causes  which  originally  pro- 
duced them  some  days  before.  No  church  bells  are  ringing, 
yet  faintly  in  his  mind  he  is  aware  of  their  sound.  No  land- 
scape of  meadow  and  hills  glowing  in  the  sunset  greets  his 
eyes  in  the  artificially  lighted  room  where  he  is  speaking, 
but  within  his  mind  arises  again  a  faint  likeness  of  the  scene 
he  wishes  to  describe.  No  flowers  are  in  the  room,  yet  as 
he  describes,  he  seems  to  experience  a  faint  semblance  of 
their  fragrance,  and  a  feeling  of  well  being  and  content,  sim- 
ilar to  that  felt,  on  the  evening  when  he  witnessed  the  scene, 
again  comes  over  him.  This  we  call  memory — our  recol- 
lection, or  remembrance  of  those  experiences. 

Whence  and  how,  apparently  disconnected  from  tho 
causes  which  produced  the  primary  impressions,  do  these 
manifestations  arise  again  in  the  mind?  To  find  an  answer 


98  PSYCHIC   AND  ECONOMIC   RESULTS 

to  this  question,  consideration  must  first  be  given  to  the 
problem,  how  the  real  causes  produced  the  primary  impres- 
sions. 

The  sound  waves  from  the  vibrations  of  the  bells  af- 
fected the  auditory  nerves.  The  vibrations  of  light  trans- 
ferred by  meadow,  hills,  sky,  landscape  to  the  invisible  ether 
were  by  this  transmitted  to  the  neiTes  of  sight.  The  infini- 
tesimally  small  particles  of  odorous  matter  exhaled  by  flow- 
ers, etc.,  into  the  atmosphere,  affected  the  olfactory  nerves. 
The  motions  of  the  breeze  reacted  upon  the  nerves  of  touch 
located  under  the  skin  of  the  face,  neck  and  hands,  and  all 
these  reactions  affecting  the  nervous  system  as  a  whole,  caused 
the  general  feeling  of  well  being  and  content.  It  is  obvious 
then,  that  all  the  original  experiences  were  produced  by 
external  causes  acting  on  nerves. 

But  this  does  not  explain  how  the  subsequent  fainter 
repetitions  arose  in  the  mind  of  the  speaker,  after  the  exter- 
nal causes  had  for  many  days  ceased  to  act  on  his  n-?rves. 
This  mystery  can  not  be  explained  except  by  one  hypothesis : 
that  when  the  external  causes  were  producing  the  original 
experiences,  they  simultaneously  effected  alterations  of  a 
more  or  less  permanent  nature  in  the  organism  of  the  wit- 
ness, and  that,  so  long  .as  these  alterations  remain,  whenever 
a  current  of  nerve  force  moves  through  these  altered  parts, 
then  it  is  modified  by  the  existence  of  these  alterations  in 
such  ways  as  to  reproduce  in  consciousness  a  more  or  less 
vivid  repetition  of  the  original  experiences. 

An  analogy  may  prove  helpful.  Suppose  two  people 
conduct  a  conversation  in  presence  of  a  phonograph.  This 
instrument  has  a  cylinder  with  a  covering  sensitive  to  sound 
waves.  By  some  mechanism  the  cylinder  is  made  to  revolve 
while  the  conversation  is  in  progress,  so  as  to  present,  from 
moment  to  moment,  a  succession  of  different  parts  of  its 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  99 

surface  to  the  sound  waves.  The  sound  waves  produce  per- 
manent marks  on  the  surface  of  the  cylinder,  and  when 
thereafter  it  is  made  to  revolve,  these  marks  cause  sound 
waves  to  arise,  which  reproduce  the  words  and  the  peculiari- 
ties of  the  voices,  as  they  were  in  the  original  conversation, 
only  somewhat  fainter  and  modified  by  the  imperfections  of 
the  instrument.  The  repetitions  of  the  conversation  by  the 
instrument  would  be  impossible  unless  the  sound  waves  from 
the  original  conversation  had  left  permanent  alterations 
(markings)  on  the  cylinder.  If  the  marked  cylinder  is  taken 
out  of  the  machine,  and  one  which  has  not  yet  been  used 
is  substituted,  would  it  not  be  preposterous  as  well  as  impos- 
sible, to  imagine  that  any  sound  of  the  conversation  before 
mentioned  could  become  audible  thereby,  even  though  the 
cylinder  was  revolved  for  ever  and  ever? 

Leaving  analogy  and  applying  the  same  line  of  reason- 
ing to  our  problem,  it  follows  that  memory  depends  on  the 
structural  permanence  of  the  nerve  cells.  If  nerve  cells 
died  when  exhausted  by  functional  activity,  like  the  other 
cells,  and  were  then  replaced  by  new  cells,  memory  would  be 
inconceivable,  if  not  impossible,  for  the  new  cells  could  not 
any  more  produce  the  old  experiences  than  the  new  cylinder 
of  the  phonograph  could  repeat  the  conversations  which  had 
made  markings  on  the  other. 

Two  other  hypotheses  to  account  for  memory  have  been 
current.  The  first  differs  from  the  one  above  detailed,  in 
that  it  supposes  the  alterations  or  markings  to  occur  in  the 
tissues  surrounding  the  nerve  cells.  This  can  hardly  be 
maintained  in  the  absence  of  evidence  to  sustain  it. 

For  it  is  an  obvious  fact  that  the  external  causes  act 
directly  on  the  nerves.  If  they  act  at  all  on  the  tissues  sur- 
rounding them,  (and  this  is  so  far  not  known,)  they  can 


100  PSYCHIC   AND  ECONOMIC   RESULTS 

only  do  it  indirectly.  This  can,  therefore,  not  claim  to  be 
more  than  a  mere  guess. 

The  other  may  be  described  as  follows:  From  each 
kind  of  external  causes  the  impulses  are  transmitted  to  special 
nerves  located  in  special  parts  of  the  body,  and  these  nerves 
are  specialized  to  receive  impressions  of  that  kind  only.  By 
this  hypothesis,  do  these  impulses  produce  no  permanent  alter- 
ations or  markings  on  these  nerve  cells.  But  because  these 
cells  are  specialized  to  this  class  of  phenomena  only,  there- 
fore, whenever  a  current  of  energy  passes  through  them  then 
the  sensations  which  distinguish  that  special  kind  of  exter- 
nal cause  are  revived,  and  this  is  supposed  to  account  for 
memory. 

If  this  is  true,  if  the  external  causes  do  not  alter  or 
mark  the  nerves  which  are  specialized  to  their  service  accord- 
ing to  .this  conjecture,  then  why  could  not  these  nerves  cause 
the  experiences,  which  distinguish  the  external  causes  to 
which  they  are  devoted,  before  they  have  been  acted  on  by 
them?  By  the  hypothesis  they  are  the  same  before  as  after. 
What  need  then  for  experience,  education,  study?  Let  a 
current  of  Jprce  flow  at  birth  through  the  infant's  nerve 
cells  and  k^wMste  will  at  once  possess  all  the  wisdom  and 
general  ability  that  a  lifetime  could  possibly  give.  What 
strange,  absurd  hypotheses  may  pass  current  while  they  re- 
main unchallenged! 


OE  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  101 


APPENDIX  NOTE  II. 

ON   ALTRUISM. 

The  support  of  brute-woman  by  brute-man,,  which  was 
discussed  in  Chapters  V  and  VI,  seems  to  constitute  the 
first  instance  of  conscious  human  altruism. 

The  love  of  the  mother  for  her  child  has  frequently  been 
upheld  as  the  original  and  highest  form  of  altruism  in  nature. 
But  is  it  ?  Altruism  has  been  denned  as  "devotion  to  others." 
Surely  the  mother  is  devoted  to  her  child,  and  the  child  being 
another,  this  is  a  true  form  of  altruism.  But  with  refer- 
ence to  time,  is  it  the  first?  Evidently  not.  For  in  sexually 
reproducing  creatures  before  a  mother  can  have  a  child,  the 
child  must  have  a  father.  As  shown  in  Chapters  V  and  VI, 
the  human  father  made  efforts  to  provide  for  the  mother, 
before  the  child  was  in  existence,  and  the  mother,  with  ref- 
erence to  the  father  being  another,  this  constitutes  a  form 
of  Altruism,  antedating  the  mother's  devotion  to  her  child. 

So  far  as  it  is  possible  to  know,  this  must  have  been 
the  first  form  of  conscious  human  altruism.  Which  of  the 
two  is  the  higher  form?  By  which  criterion  can  conscious 
altruism  be  graded  as  higher  or  lower?  Obviously  by  mo- 
tive! What  is  the  motive  of  the  mother's  devotion  to  her 
child?  Can  it  be  called  motive  at  all?  May  it  not  be  de- 
scribed as  purely  instinctive  ?  Up  to  the  time  of  birth,  the 
child  is  within  the  mother's  body.  Her  devotion  to  it  during 
that  period  can  hardly  be  distinguished  from  self-devotion. 
Then,  when  the  child's  internality  changes  to  externality, 
the  devotion  to  it  is  a  continuation  of  the  former  feelings, 


102  PSYCHIC   AND   ECONOMIC    RESULTS 

therefore,  hard  to  distinguish  from  instinct.  It  must  nec- 
essarily grade  very  low  by  the  criterion  of  motive.  How  was 
it  with  the  devotion  of  brute-man  when  he  provided  for  the 
necessities  of  his  female  mate?  It  cannot  be  denied  that 
originally  male  and  female  were  attracted  to  each  other  by 
reproductive  instinct.  But,  as  has  been  illustrated  in  the 
foregoing  chapters,  there  grew  up,  during  the  long  months 
of  comradeship,  from  intimate  acquaintance,  laboring,  re- 
joicing and  suffering  together,  a  fellow  feeling,  unavoidable 
under  such  conditions,  between  natures  susceptible  to  it,  and 
closely  akin.  The  high  development  of  this  trait  in  later 
times,  is  evidence  that  the  susceptibility  to  it  existed  from 
the  first.  Then  when  he  brought  food  to  the  woman  in 
concealment,  who  can  say  that  fellow  feeling  was  not  the 
most  powerful  among  the  complex  motives  of  the  man-brute  ? 
If  it  be  asserted  that  the  desire  to  indulge  the  reproduc- 
tive instinct  was  the  sole  motive,  the  answer  is,  that  this 
could  not  be  so  because,  at  that  period,  females  will  not 
submit  >to  it.  Man's  ancestors,  during  the  era  here  referred 
to,  were  nothing  more  than  intelligent  brutes,  and  no  female 
brute  will  permit  the  male  to  indulge  at  such  a  time;  (last 
stages  of  pregnancy).  This  is  a  rule,  almost  without  excep- 
tion among  wild  brutes.  That  it  is  different  with  some  men 
now  living  in  civilized  communities,  is  no  reason  for  believ- 
ing that  anything  like  it  occurred  with  brute-man.  Indeed 
this  which  now  sometimes  does  take  place  between  men  and 
women  is  obviously  the  result  of  civilization.  For  during 
many  generations  civilized  women  have  abjectly  depended 
on  the  men  who  supported  them  for  a  mere  chance  to  live. 
Many  such  men  have  sexually  selected  their  consorts  with 
sole  reference  to  abject  submission  in  this  matter  of  inter- 
course. How  could  the  well  attested  greater  rarity  of  this 
kind  of  abuse  among  savage  people  be  otherwise  accounted  for  ? 


OF  MAN'S  PHYSICAL  UPRIGHTNESS.  103 

It  appears,  then,  that  fellow  feeling  and  sympathy  were 
present,  if  not  predominant,  among  the  complex  motives 
which  induced  the  devotion  which  the  human  male-brute  dis- 
played, when  he  provided  for  the  needs  of  his  female  con- 
sort in  concealment.  This  constitutes  a  true  case  of  con- 
scious altruism  and  ranks  higher,  by  the  criterion  of  motive, 
than  the  mother's  devotion  to  her  child.  As  to  priority  in 
time,  and  superiority  in  motive,  does  the  devotion  of  the 
lover  to  his  bride  outrank  the  mother's  love  for  her  child? 

This  conclusion,  however,  would  not  justify  an  infer- 
ence that  the  complex,  refined,  and  evolved  altruism  of  the 
women  of  today  is  inferior  to  the  average  altruism  of  men 
of  the  present  age,  but  it  would  support  the  opinion  that  in 
its  original  undifferentiated  form  the  altruism  of  the  human 
male-brute  would  be  more  readily  transformable  into  the  in- 
tellectually initiated  higher  forms  of  this  tendency,  such  as: 
devotion  to  high  principle,  to  justice,  to  truth,  to  classes, 
foreign  nations,  humanity,  to  life,  in  general  to 

That  thread  of  the  all-sustaining  beauty, 
Which  runs  through  all  and  does  all  unite,  ^ 

and  it  seems  that  the  consensus  of  historic  and  contemporary 
experience  supports  this  view. ' 


APPENDIX    NOTE    111. 
Variation  and  Fluctuation  in  Higher  Animals. 


Kach  gelation 


^ffjaSS^gStSSaf^S^^^'SSSS 

the  P^ei'tal  typ^Thi^is  "variat'.°n "-*  ™"!i Ht^'A.*.^ „.  »hich 
are  "acquired"'  during  the  life  time  of  an  indivi 


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